


Double Hate

by TheShadowPanther



Category: Dragonball Z
Genre: Child Abuse, Gen, Sexual Harrassment
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-11-28
Updated: 2010-06-01
Packaged: 2017-10-03 22:04:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 18
Words: 66,358
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22725
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheShadowPanther/pseuds/TheShadowPanther
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The two have seemingly forgotten, but will they ever forgive?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Running Away

**Author's Note:**

> Child abuse in this chapter.

Gohan woke up suddenly. Where was he? He sat up in the strange bed he had been lying in and looked around. He was in an even stranger room. This wasn't his room at home! Instead of a desk and books, there were pictures and photos. Two beds took up the room space along with a computer and other technology.

He spotted his eleven-year-old brother Goten sleeping peacefully on the bed across from him. Gohan smiled affectionately. After a while, he got out of bed and tiptoed across the floor to the door. Opening it carefully, so as not to wake his little brother, the twelve-year-old demi-Saiyan went out the door into the hallway. Gohan leaned his head on the wall as he tried to remember how'd they'd ended up here in this weird place instead of being back at the Son home. Oh, yes, _that_.

:-:-:-:

_Goten had fallen on a knife. Normally, a knife wouldn't have pierced Goten's skin, but unfortunately, that knife had been a sawing knife and extra sharp. Gohan had helped Goten up, but he couldn't do anything for his little bro's poor leg. So they had turned to their parents for assistance. _

_But ever since the Cell Games a year ago, Chichi and Goku had been ignoring the brothers. Instead they turned their attentions onto each other for their own selfish need of self-enjoyment. As it was, Goten and Gohan were left to take care of each other. This case was no exception, especially with everyone over for the anniversary of the Cell Games._

_'Mom, Goten fell on one of your knives. Can you take care of his knee?' Gohan had asked his mother. Chichi was at the sink cooking, as was normal in the Son household. She had turned on Gohan and Goten and said, 'Don't interrupt me while I'm working. Do you know how many dishes of food I have to make? And Vegeta's here too! Go away and leave me in peace.'_

_Gohan and Goten were literally kicked out of the kitchen. Gasping at the indignity dealt them, Gohan led Goten to the bathroom. He grabbed gauze and hydrogen peroxide and awkwardly fixed up Goten's knee. The finished result didn't exactly look professional, but it would have to do. The brothers hurriedly dressed for the impending party._

_The Son boys tromped down the stairs. They scooted out of the way of their father and respectfully let him go by them. Into the living room walked zombie-like Gohan and Goten. They sat on the ground where they wouldn't be noticed and waited patiently for the party to begin._

_Krillin and 18 and Marron came first. The Son boys' faces lit up, for Krillin and 18 were among the few including Piccolo and Vegeta who at least talked to them. Marron squirmed out of her mother's hand and happily went over to her friends._

_Krillin and 18 smiled as they watched Marron play her newest game of Jack Tacks with the Son boys. Goku heard Krillin's voice in the other room and went to greet him. He noticed that his male children were playing with Marron, but he chose to leave it._

_Vegeta and his family arrived next. Trunks and Bra went over to join the trio at the game while Goku greeted Vegeta and Bulma. Soon the living room racketed with the noise from the youngsters and the adults talking._

_Yamcha, Puar, and Oolong, accompanied by Master Roshi and Turtle, also stepped into the Son household. The party was moved outside as the housegot morecrowded. Tien and Chiaotzu showed up for a brief time. But a certain green bean was conspicuously absent._

_Gohan and Goten were having a great time. But when Chichi put out the food, they were abandoned in the rush for the vittles. Everyone got loaded plates. Not the Go-brothers._

_They were given only the bare minimum that a Saiyan could eat, which was starvation level for them._

_The Son brothers were done before anyone else. Gohan noticed that Goten was wincing every so often and asked what was the matter. Goten shook his head. Gohan asked again, this time in his head._

** _ What's the matter 'Ten? _ ** _ Goten flashed his big brother a pained smile as he rubbed his knee. _

** _ It's my knee. It hurts. _ ** _ Gohan's eyebrow knit increased. He got up. Goten, catching on Gohan's intention, shook his head frantically no. Gohan stilled Goten's gesture with a firm nod. He straightened his shoulders and marched up to his parents._

_'Mom, Dad, Goten's knee still hurts. He fell on a knife and it cut him. Won't you help him?'_

_The table instantly stopped. Goku and Chichi turned to their eldest son, who was standing there bravely withstanding their rage for his younger brother. The silence before Goku talked was horrible. Goten was shrinking beneath the table in fear, but Gohan was standing with his back straight and his chin up. His black flashing eyes met his parents' steadily and with no hesitation. This was the final test._

_Goku broke the silence. 'Goten's knee hurts? He fell on a knife? Well, that was his fault. He has to take care of it himself.' That was the wrong answer for Gohan. Even Goten stood up, fueled by the same rage that provided Gohan with the audacity to defy his parents that fateful day. Horrified gasps echoed around the table as the Z-senshi stared at Goku, shocked by his callous statement._

_'Goten has to take care of everything himself! I have to take care of everything myself! You don't even care about us anymore! I hate you, I hate you!' Gohan yelled. Goten nodded in fervent agreement._

_Gohan spun around. He stormed up to his brother and turned back around. 'We're leaving! Don't try to follow us, we hate you all!' Goten followed his brother into the air and they rocketed off to Dende-knew-where._

:-:-:-:_  
_  
Gohan ended the flashback with, _And that was how we ended up here for a month. Huh. I guess we'd better go in and eat with the Harrisons now._ Gohan peeked back into the room he had just exited. Goten was up and rubbing his eyes sleepily. He spotted Gohan's face in the door and smiled hugely. Scrambling off the bed, Goten leaped up to his big brother and hugged him.

"Morning, Gohan!" Goten looked up at his smiling older brother.

"Morning, squirt. Ready for breakfast with the Harrisons?" Gohan asked.

Goten nodded, shadows passing behind his eyes at the unconscious reminder of their old family. The same shadows were in Gohan's eyes, too, but as far as the Son brothers were concerned, they were no longer Son Gohan and Son Goten. Those people were dead, had died a long time ago at the Cell Games.

Gohan and Goten made their way into the kitchen, where they found the three- member family of the Harrisons. Myna and Jack welcomed the brothers to their home.

"Hi you two. How are you feeling?" Myna asked them. Jack added, "How's that knee?" to Goten.

Goten looked down at his knee and looked back up at Jack. "It's all healed. Thank you for making it better," he said with a shy smile. Gohan nodded agreement.

Linda, the Harrison's only child, asked, "So why did you guys end on our doorstep a month ago?" This question had been asked of the Go-brothers before, but Gohan had pleaded for them not to ask it again until the Goten's knee had healed. It'd healed now, so Linda saw no need to hold back any longer, despite her parent's warning looks.

Gohan stiffened. Goten took a deep breath. They tried to calm down enough to answer Linda's question, even though they'd been expecting it far sooner than now, and only barely succeeded.

It was Gohan who said, "We ran away from our family."

Goten put in his two cents with, "We're better off without them."

The Harrisons exchanged glances at the hate-laden responses they had gotten.

Linda asked her parents, "Hey, Mom, Dad, why don't we adopt them? They would be safe with us, and I could have two brothers! I've always wanted a bro."

The Go-brothers listened with wide eyes. They were shocked that these three very nice people wanted to adopt them after only a month, but they instantly agreed with Linda. Myna and Jack glanced at the would-be-adopted children and noted the hope gleaming in their dark eyes. Well, they always did want a larger family, so why not?

Jack looked at his wife. Myna smiled and said to Linda, "Why don't we?" Linda whooped with as much joy as her thirteen-year-old body could generate while Gohan and Goten grabbed each other in a hug. After bowing to their new parents, of course.

The Thursday of next week the adoption of "Jeffrey Gohan Harrison" and "Marcus Goten Harrison" was finalized. For five years the five-member family was happy. But the peaceful atmosphere would be ruined on the first day of Jeff's senior and Marc's junior year at Orange Star High School.


	2. Off into the Wild People Yonder

"But Mom, do I have to? I don't want to go to school with a bunch of stupid weaklings!" Pan pouted at Chichi.

Chichi sighed. "Yes, Pan, you have to. It's not a matter in which you have any choice. You have to socialize with other people your age. You need friends!"

"But Mom, I have friends!" Pan whined.

"Only through your father!" Chichi retorted.

Pan slumped into her chair and sulked. The fifteen-year-old knew she was beaten but didn't want to admit it. Chichi looked at her youngest daughter in exasperation. She was unable to use the Horrifying Frying Pan of Doom and Famine on her simply because she was her daughter and not a son who was easily intimidated by the appliance. So she had to do things the hard way with Pan. She sighed again and took one of Pan's hands.

"Honey, I know that you don't want to go to Orange Star High. But you have to go. You're already enrolled, having passed the entrance exams. Just think of this as an adventure. There'll be Trunks, Marron, and Bra there with you!" Pan just turned away. Chichi shook her head.

"Sweetie, you're going, and that's final."

Pan continued to look the other way. Chichi stood up and turned away. "You'll start school tomorrow."

Pan stood up and stormed out of the door. Goku came in just at that moment and looked after his huffy daughter. Pan just swept by him and went up to her room where she put on her training gi. She leapt out the window and was soon engaged in a furious flurry of punches and kicks that felt the wrath of Pan's Saiyan-developed anger.

Soon after his two sons had disappeared, Goku had come across a ragged orphan wandering around their forest. She had been ten at the time, a year younger than Goten. Goku had taken pity on her and brought her home to the care of Chichi. She had grown up in the doting household of the Sons and had become a medium-spoiled brat. It was only in situations that seriously went against the grain in Pan's opinion that she drew on her teenage hormones and went wild. This happened to be one of them.

Goku finished his journey into the kitchen and sat in the chair Pan had been occupying earlier. He asked Chichi, "I take it you told her and she didn't take it very well."

Chichi nodded. "That's the gist of it." She turned around and faced her husband. "Sometimes I wish I could thwack her on the head with my frying pan and get some sense into her, but she's not Gohan. Or Goten."

Goku exhaled. "No she's not." The silence stretched between the two as each was lost in their own memories of the fighting duo. Both Gohan and Goten had fought in all the battles starting from their uncle Radditz kidnapping the both of them. But aside from the battles and the training, the two brothers had found the time to constantly study and be harassed by the Frying Pan of Famine. But sometimes Goku could get them away and they'd go fishing.

Of course all that had changed at the Cell Games. With Goten distracting Cell and Goku encouraging him, Gohan had finished the android off, with Goten helping afterwards.

The Cell Games had marked the turning point in the lives of the Z-senshi. The pair of Chichi and Goku had unintentionally started ignoring their sons. Soon it had grown so bad they had needed a serious wake-up call, a call they were still recovering from.

But that was not entirely relevant to this case at this time. Pan was Pan and she always would be.

:-:-:-:

The next morning dawned bright and clear for the Harrison family. Marc and Jeff had been up for hours already doing their daily sparring and normal hunting exercises. But at the first blare of their parents' alarm clock, the two dropped their fighting stances and made their stately way out of their self-created battlefield. By the time Marc and Jeff came into the kitchen, Myna was sleepily getting a cup of tea for herself, while Jack read the newspaper. Linda was still sleeping. Her first college semester didn't start for another week, so she was allowed to sleep in still.

Jeff grinned at his mother's expression. Marc leaned over Jack's shoulder to look at a piece of news that had interested him.

Myna finished her tea as Jeff went upstairs to take his shower and get dressed. Marc copied his brother a while later, reassuring his dad that yes, he would be surfing the waves safely after school. And yes, he would do his homework before he started.

The brothers came down refreshed and ready to go. They grabbed their glasses of orange juice and ten pieces of toast each and said their good- byes to their parents and a grumpy Linda. Linda just waved them off.

Marc grabbed the car keys to the van and followed his brother out the door. It was his turn this week to drive their co-owned car and Marc was especially happy it was the first week of OSH. Last year it had been Jeff's week on the first year that Marc was even allowed to drive with a permit.

Jeff got in the passenger side of the two-seat car. Marc got into the driver's eat and shut his door. He made sure his surfboard and things were locked down correctly. Then he checked to see Jeff's lacrosse equipment was there and buckled down. Then he started the car.

Jeff checked his and his lil brother's bags to make sure all the stuff they needed were in there. They were. The laptops they had been supplied with by their family, the binders, paper, their summer homework, pens, notebook, even locker decorations, all were there.

Jeff raised an eyebrow at Marc as he held up a poster of Freddie Prinze Jr. with a milk moustache and a slogan saying, "Make it big" and "got milk?". Marc grinned sheepishly at the poster. Jeff shook his head and said, "Sometimes I worry about you, lil bro."

Marc simply grinned and continued to drive. He and Jeff talked about the news article Marc had read about students in Nagasaki who, when they woke up later and went to school later, were much more pleasant company at school than people who got up at the standard time. Marc snorted and said, "That would certainly apply for me all right."

Jeff nodded. "That's for sure. We'd definitely have more time to spar anyway." Marc Grinned™.

They pulled up at OSH. The brothers got out and Marc capsulated the vehicle with all its contents. Jeff threw him his messenger bag, and they both strolled into the high school like they owned the place. They did, in a sense.

Jeff was one of the most popular guys in his grade, if not THE most popular. Marc wasn't too shabby in social standing amongst the juniors either. He was well known and respected among his peers, a respect the sixteen-year-old never failed to return. But one thing to always keep in mind: keep off their bad side. If you don't you are their everlasting enemy, something that will make you miserable for as long as you are on the same ground with them. But if you're their friend, you've got 'em for life.

They stopped by the receptionist's office to get their schedules and any extra information. The secretary informed them that four new students were coming to OSH this year. Two of them were going to be sophomores. The other two were juniors. Jeff thanked the secretary politely as she gave them their schedules and they exited the room.

The older sibling murmured to the younger, "Two new students in your jurisdiction. Take care of 'em, bro."

Marc nodded in agreement. "Of course. Unless those students are the owners of the kis we're feeling." Indeed, four very familiar kis were approaching the building. Marc and Jeff felt very lucky that they had found a way to warp and distort their own kis to resemble a cross between Myna and Jack's ki frequencies with a little foreignness thrown in for added effect.

Jeff groaned. "I have a feeling that those four are the new students Ms. Robbington was talking about. I am so going to kill Dende."

Marc replied, "Not if I don't first, bro." Jeff smirked at the challenge. The brothers separated to find their lockers and their friends before homeroom started.

:-:-:-:

Dende hung his head. Why had the Z-senshi done this?! This had definitely been a bad idea. Too bad they had started it into motion already.

Dende moaned. He was definitely going to be explaining the situation (hopefully!) to two very intimidating demi-Saiyans soon. Ohh boy.

:-:-:-:

Trunks followed Marron as she led him, his little sister Bra, and Pan into the Orange Star High School building. They were immediately confronted by the faces of hundreds of unknown people, students, and teachers alike. The daughters and son of the Z-senshi asked one person where the receptionist's office was and shouldered through all the rest of the people to it. Some people were already coming out of it. Of course, there were all the people who already had come early for their schedules. They were just standing around and talking away.

Trunks, Marron, Pan, and Bra received their timetables from Ms. Robbington. They had a question for her, "Uh, where do we go?" Ms. Robbington looked a bit startled, but she snagged a junior named Logan and a sophomore named Mandy from the crowds to show the newbies around.

Mandy started off with Bra and Pan in tow. Logan spotted a friend of his and headed in his direction. Trunks and Marron followed a mite timidly. This was a new situation for them. Although these two could take care of themselves, it was still a bit overwhelming to be in one situation one day and an entirely different state of matters the next. It just was not natural.

Marron was behind Trunks, so she was the only one to get a glance of a group of boys coming in behind them. She was particularly rattled by one of the boys. It wasn't that he was cute, he was, but it was the fact that she felt she had seen him before. Had known him somewhere. But where? And why was she being confronted with his face now?

Marron had no more face to dwell on as the group swept away down in the opposite direction the trio was going. Marron turned her head to see if any of them were looking back at her, but they were out of sight. Marron turned back her head to Logan's back and scooted hurriedly up to catch up with him and Trunks. She didn't like the way that one boy had upset her nerves, like it was important for her to know him, for whatever reason the Kais had set for her.

:-:-:-:

Marc had been mildly surprised by the way Marron's face had changed, but he had expected to bump into her. After all, he had been keeping track of her ki along with Trunks' and Bra's. He didn't know that the Sons had kind of adopted Pan, but her ki did eerily take on an edge of Goku and Chichi's kis.

Marc continued on down the hall with his surfer and computer dude friends to his homeroom. He wasn't a junior counselor, thank Kami, not Dende, so he wasn't tied to two homerooms at once. He just prayed that his homeroom was not the same as Trunks' and Marron's. Oh well, he would find out if and when he had any classes with them, which was inevitable.

:-:-:-:

Marron and Trunks were introduced to John and Maurice, Logan's friends, and hit it off with them pretty easily. It turned out that both Marron and Trunks had classes with either Logan, John, Reece, or all of them in the classes. Much happiness was celebrated and much fun was anticipated.

Bra and Pan weren't so lucky. Mandy was in actuality a stuck-up jerk, even more than Bra, and the two friends were quite happy to dispense with her company for their classes. They had only one of their seven classes with Mandy in them, so they were quite happy with that too. But unfortunately, they only had two classes with each other in them. Bra and Pan exchanged pouts before departing for their first class of the day: Bra: Mandatory English, Pan: Chemistry.

Pan was coming out of her exhausting Chemistry class with Mr. Reynolds, and was on her way to locker 79 to get her stuff for Advanced Calculus when she felt the curious electrically sparking atmosphere of suppressed ki. She looked up and saw two people at the very end of the long hallway heading toward her. Pan immediately discarded the wimpy looking chestnut brown haired person on the right.

Instead, her eyes were drawn to the very tall black-spiky-haired person striding beside the wimp. A brilliant grin was spread across his features as he and his walking partner talked enthusiastically about something they really liked with a passion. The grin reminded Pan weirdly of her father's famous Son Grin(tm).

As they came nearer, the atmosphere became more and more compressed. Pan was soon breathing with the same amount of pressure in the air that she usually did around her father or Vegeta. It felt like millennia before the two warriors passed each other, at least that's what Pan felt. When she reached the point where they were side by side, Pan was nearly stumbling with the amount of crackling in the air. But then they were separated and Pan could breathe easier as the amount of distance between the warriors increased. Pan was glad of that, too, because whoever this person was, she didn't want to hang around him for longer than possible until she got her bearings. Once Pan got comfortably settled into the school, then, and only then, would she seek him out and challenge him to a fight.

Jeff also noticed the air of suppressed ki. It didn't nearly affect him as much as it had affected Pan, but he was definitely interested in the female who was the source of the snapping air. His eyes followed Pan as she passed by him. Coal eyes met coal eyes as Pan looked back also, and held for an ageless moment as Time slowed from Its run to a slow walk. Pan was the first to look away under the eldest demi-Saiyan's unwavering gaze. Jeff followed shortly thereafter, catching Ren's question in time to answer it for the first time.

"Tutor you on Calculus? Sure, as long as you teach me the effortlessness of speaking Spanish aside from my Latin studies." Ren and Jeff clasped hands to seal the deal. Ren did look like a wimp, but he was by no means one. Ren was the Captain and the second-toughest player on the boy's lacrosse team. He had been the toughest until the beginning of sophomore year when Jeff had quit surfing and joined the lacrosse team. Ever since the boy's lacrosse team had added Jeff to their ranks, they had retained an ongoing no-loss streak for two years and were looking to continue it this year. Training had already started.

There were some classes in which all grade levels from 9th to 12th grade had classes together. That was true with Jeff's last period before lunch. Jeff, Pan, Bra, Trunks, Marron, and Marc had all ended up in the same study hall. Logan was with Trunks, and this was the one class both Bra and Pan had with the snob Mandy.

Marc was sitting in the corner of the highest part of the grandstands surrounded by his closest companions Ivory, Bobby, and Lindsay, and also by other people who wanted the group's popularity rub off on them. Logan was placed a row down and two seats off to the left of Marc. Trunks sat to Logan's right, making him sit only a seat away from Marc's black stare.

Bra was chatting away with Pan and Marron off in the opposite corner of where Marc, Trunks, and Logan were, so there was no chance of conversation there. Jeff hadn't arrived yet, but he was about to. Pan felt the compromised air long before the senior lacrosse second-in-command arrived. Marc felt his brother's ki, too, but he chose to ignore it for the time being. Trunks looked up as the almost-familiar ki approached. He frowned as he tried to figure out why the air was compromised and why the ki level causing it was so familiar.

Trunks was frowning so hard little lines began to form in between his eyebrows. Marc noticed Trunks' frown and, just out of curiosity of his ex- best friend's reason, casually read his mind. He calmly withdrew a minute later and sent an almost lazy query into his brother's mind, Hey, bro, did you know that our dear friend Trunks is feeling your suppressed ki? He just doesn't know it. Now how about that? He's so advanced now.

Jeff was just as casual in his reply. Thanks, baby bro. I'll try and be more careful next time. Hey, do you know which class is my next? I've never been to room 117.

Marc grinned. Keep coming, bro. You're almost there. Jeff raised a mental eyebrow at his little brother's mysteriousness, but didn't reply as he cut off their link.

Marc settled back into talking with Ivory as he felt the eldest demi- Saiyan's ki gradually become more suppressed until even the son of the kingly Prince of all Saiyans could barely feel it above a normal person's average. Granted, Jeff's ki level was still a bit higher than the average human, but that couldn't be helped. Marc's ki was a little lower, but only because he knew that Trunks was going to be keeping a close eye on him when he figured out just _who_ he looked like.

Subconsciously, Marc watched Trunks' brows furrow a bit more, then relax as Trunks shrugged and leaned back in his seat. As he turned his purple-haired head to catch Logan's concerned inquiry, Marc caught sight of another puzzling phenomenon. Bra and Marron were sitting with another girl and talking a mile a minute like they were old friends or something. With Marc's Saiyan hearing, he easily caught their words.

Bra was saying, "I can't believe we have to be here amongst humans like this. If only Mother hadn't forced us all to come here, I could be shopping with Marron and you would be fighting with Goku, Pan."

Marc's interest was piqued. Pan fought with Goku? This was interesting. He also noticed that Pan's ki had a sort of Son-ish quality to it. It was something that all Sons had in their ki signature. Marc knew he had it, Jeff had it, Goku had it, even Chichi had it, and now this girl had it. Hmm, a dilemma. Especially considering that Pan looked nothing like his parents, no, his biological parents, at all. Okay, so maybe she had a little Chichi in the face. And she moved like Goku somewhat. But that could have been acquired from years of living with them.

Marc thought no more on the subject as he felt his brother's ki just outside the door. He knew that Jeff knew what he knew when his emphatic mental link surged with shock and laughing disbelief. He looked to the door just before Jeff entered it.

Jeff was shaking his head in amusement as he entered. Trunks noticed, as well as Pan, that he was shaking his head when he entered. But it was even more baffling to them when he faced the grandstand in one particular spot and called, "I cannot believe this. What are the odds of a sibling being in the same class with another?"

Marc was grinning as he said back, "I know, it's totally crazy. Maybe they think we have to keep an eye on each other during study hall?" Jeff was still shaking his head. Trunks, Pan, and now Bra and Marron were watching him and Marc exchange their words. Now how had Jeff known his brother was going to be there without seeing his face in the crowd first? From what they had seen, Jeff had just walked in and said his stuff without having to pick out Marc's face in the crowd. How was this possible aside from ki? Unless...unless these two could read ki. And if they could read ki, then maybe... could they manipulate ki? Hmm. Perhaps this was another threat to the Earth? Let's find out.

Trunks asked Logan, "Hey Logan, I just noticed something weird. Jeff seemed to know before he walked into the room that his brother, is it? His brother was here. How did he do that?"

Logan shrugged. "I noticed that too. But it's just one of Jeff and Marc's weird traits. They've always been sort of odd, even when Jeff was a freshman here at Orange Star High." Trunks stored away the information for later. He asked who Marc was. Logan showed him and quickly snapped to attention as the teacher Mr. Andricolen arrived.

Trunks, however, ignored the arrival of the teacher as he stared at Marc. Marc was jarring a long-stuffed memory from the darkest recesses of his subconscious. He looked vaguely, no, more than vaguely: strongly. Strongly like a forgiven-but-not-forgotten friend of his, _theirs_, before the Lost Years after Cell. The Lost Years of not only friendships, but of sanity and hope. But hope was already stirring in Trunks again as he stared at the strong resemblance to a boy he knew. Once knew. He had once known a boy named Son Goten.

Pan looked carefully at Jeff. There was just something very weird to her about the guy. She didn't like him, that's for sure, for some really bizarre reason, but there was something strong in him that reminded her a lot of Vegeta. No, not Vegeta. The guy wasn't so princely or kingly or whatever the word was. No, more like her dad.

As soon as the word "dad" entered, it was immediately overshadowed by a sudden recollection of a picture she had seen quite often on the mantle. A picture of her father grinning happily with two boys and flashing the peace sign with two fingers. Another flashback followed of her mother and sometimes her father telling her about the two sons they had had before they ran away and before they had found Pan as an orphan.

Pan looked from Jeff to Marc. She was struck instantly with a Saiyan-sized lightning bolt by their heavy resemblance with not only each other, but more than a bit vaguely like her father. She swallowed, suddenly very afraid. She was afraid of what they might do to her if and when they found out she was from the Son group. She had a feeling that she didn't want to be with them, especially if they turned out to be the original aliases of Son Gohan and Son Goten.

At that precise moment, Jeff and Marc turned their heads to face the direction of Trunks and Pan with her group. They had smirks on their faces, little ones, not big ones, but those little ones were not comforting at all. At all.


	3. Twisting Revelations

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Some hints of sexual harassment here.

The study hall proceeded smoothly enough. The three seniors, six juniors, and five sophomores, not mentioning the lone freshman, Dwight, had brought stuff to keep all of them busy. The atmosphere was quiet with minimal background talking, mostly from Mandy's group of three. But this was not meant to be.

The bell rang, signifying the beginning of the lunch period. The room 117 became noisy again as papers and books shuffled closed and were crammed into already full bookbags. Feet squeaked in new shoes as they stampeded out of the tiny door into the wide hallways.

Pan slowly gathered up her things. She didn't really feel like eating, which was not quite a surprise as when a Saiyan didn't feel like eating. She was a human, after all. The Son female swung her backpack over her shoulder and started out of the door with Bra. Behind her came Trunks and Logan. Marron had gone on ahead with someone named Natalie.

The girls weren't exactly walking slowly, so imagine what a surprise it was to them when a senior passed them. Pan recognized him as the one she had passed with the suppressed ki. He looked back as he passed them, giving the two girls a perfect view into his unwavering ebony stare. Then he looked away, dizzying Bra into an "Oh-my-god-he-is-so-hot" swoon and leaving Pan as uncomfortable as before.

Bra babbled away at how she was going to get a date with that boy before the end of the school year. Pan rolled her eyes. Bra, for all of her IQ points, could such be a dumb bluenette sometimes. Pan shared a look with Trunks that clearly expressed that thought.

The trio split up to find their lockers. Trunks found his locker and fished out his combination. Following the directions, Trunks turned the lock left and right accordingly. The Saiyan tried to open the locker, but it refused to budge. Applying a bit of his Saiyan strength, the younger Prince of all Saiyans tried again. Nope, not budging. Trunks blew a strand of his hair out of his face in frustration and glared at the offending piece of metal. The door still didn't open.

Trunks was saved from having to work on the locker some more by a blond girl. She said her name was Leslie. Trunks introduced himself also.

"Nice to meet you Trunks. Now this is how you really work the combination."

Trunks watched in amazement as Leslie quickly defeated the obstinate piece of yellowish metal. Leslie told him, "I wouldn't lock my locker if I were you. Too much trouble."

Trunks nodded dumbly and stared at the inside of his innocent-looking locker. Leslie marched away to a girl waiting for her.

Trunks put his pack down and stuffed roughly into the locker the things he didn't need to carry around all day. Chief among them were extra papers, binders, and a few mechanical pencils. Trunks knew he definitely was going to have some trouble getting everything he needed for his classes tomorrow, but he didn't care. Trunks shrugged and zipped his pack shut. He carefully shut his locker and reopened it, just to make sure it would work.

Trunks shut his locker again, careful to avoid the locker combo so his locker wouldn't lock again.

A voice said behind him, "Your locker lock you out?"

Trunks whirled around to see that senior walking his way. Black eyes glittered amusedly at him as a thin mouth lifted up in a mocking smirk. Trunks took in the boy's spikes and strong build and decided that he didn't really want to tick this human off. Though Trunks could no doubt take him, the senior looked too much like a Saiyan to Trunks. Besides, who knew how much damage the human could wreak? Probably as much as Krillin on a good day, maybe more.

The senior smirked wider as he got no answer. Stepping to the left of Trunks' locker, he opened that door. Trunks saw with surprise that it was very decorated, over-decorated really with pictures, posters, and even a few slogans. And what locker door is complete without the schedule?

Trunks in his astonishment asked, "Is that your locker?"

"Yep." The senior stood and looked at the contents of his locker for a while. "Oh, and by the way, I'm Jeff Harrison."

Trunks stuck out a hand. "Trunks Briefs."

Jeff smiled for real this time. "Briefs? As in Bulma Briefs?"

"Yeah," grimaced Trunks.

"That's cool, man. Listen, I'm not going to pretend to be your friend because you're the son of Briefs Bulma. I'm way too busy for that." Jeff said.

"Oh, thanks a lot." Trunks said sarcastically.

Jeff smirked again. Oddly, Jeff's smirk reminded Trunks of his dad. Trunks shuddered inwardly at the prospect of another Vegeta out there. Finishing his quivering, Trunks' eyes roved over the pictures on Jeff's locker. They stopped on one of a boy with similar features to Jeff's, but different hairstyle. He pointed the picture out, commenting on the goofy situation the boy was in. Specifically, sleeping on the couch with a Doberman licking at his face. Jeff glanced at the picture and rolled his eyes, nodded, and smirked again, all at once.

"Yeah. That'd be my little brother Marc. That Doberman is Catty. She's the dog of a friend of ours who came over the day that pic was taken. Marc's been griping about that event ever since."

Trunks smiled involuntarily. His smiled faded as he thought, _So that's Marc from the study hall. Wish I could figure out why he and Jeff look so much like Goten and Gohan. It's really creepy. But, for all we know, they could be them. I don't think so. Knowing Gohan, he'd get Goten and him as far way from Japan as he could._

Trunks sighed deeply. Jeff by now had messenger bag in his hands and was shoveling the books in them out of the way, plainly looking for something. Trunks saw this as an opportunity to question Jeff about not yet going to lunch.

"Did you have lunch already, Jeff?"

Jeff shrugged. "Nah. I'm actually looking for my lunch capsule. The cafeteria food is so bad it could kill. Ah, here it is." Jeff shut the locker and stuck a capsule into one of his many cargo pants pockets. Trunks followed Jeff as he walked away.

"Good thing I brought my own lunch then. Thankfully not my mom's cooking."

Jeff raised his eyebrows, a fake interested look plastered on his face. He asked what he hoped was incredulously, "What? Your mom can't cook?" Jeff, being who he had been, knew all about the terrible gut-twisting deficiencies that occurred from Bulma's cooking. But he wasn't supposed to, being who he was now in this time.

He was apparently a good enough actor to deceive Trunks. The young demi- prince snorted at Jeff's question.

"Cook? Mom doesn't even know what that word means, she's that bad." Trunks blinked rapidly in annoyance while Jeff winced.

"So whose cooking do you carry then? Yours?"

Trunks shook his head. "I wish. No, it's my friend Pan's mother's cooking. It's really good. I can't wait to eat it."

Jeff said with a listening expression on his face, "Sounds like a compliment to me."

Trunks nodded. "Oh yeah."

Jeff knew, also, about his mother's cooking. He remembered it with a pang, something not good for a half-Saiyan. But he contented himself with the knowledge that his adoptive father's food was almost as good. Almost.

:-:-:-:

After lunch, in which Bra and Marron had watched not only Trunks and Pan, but Ren, Jeff and Marc, scarf down their food, Bra scuttled to her Spanish class. She rushed in twenty seconds before the bell rang. The teacher smiled at her and beckoned for her to take a seat. Bra blushed a little at the exotic Spaniard standing at the head of the class. She turned to meet the hostile gazes of about ten other girls, no question staking a claim on the Spanish teacher. She countered with her own well-bred glare and sauntered up ton an empty seat with her nose in the air. She heard whispers of, "What an attitude," and "Well, excuse me." she even heard one along the crude lines of "female dog" in swear word form, but we're not going there.

Bra ignored the comments and plopped into her seat. The Spanish teacher was giving a warning glance to the girl who had sworn. He pointedly muttered in clear precise English, "I will not tolerate swearing in my class, ¿ Senorita...?"

The target of his lecture sniffed and said, "Bryan. Laura Bryan."

"Well, Senorita Bryan, this class is for speaking Spanish, not swear words. Is this understood?" This was directed at all of the class, but was clear that Laura Bryan was still being lectured especially. The students nodded mutely. The teacher glared again at Bryan, who then nodded sullenly.

He nodded and walked around his desk to the seat behind it. He passed the seat and picked up a piece of chalk. He wrote on the chalkboard beyond his chair at his desk, "I am Senor Verez." His handwriting was spidery and fit his image, giving Bra no information about his inner self other than that he seemed too beautiful. But right now Bra didn't care. She eagerly copied down his name on the first page of her spankin' brand new notebook for Spanish.

Senor Verez turned around. He said, "I am going to ask you all to tell me your names instead of I doing roll call. It is much easier for me, I've found." He pointed his chalk at a sandy-haired boy in the front row on Bra's right from her seat on the last spot on the far left of the huge grandstand (Basically Bra's in Gohan's spot in Orange Star).

Sand-hair said, "Robin Banks."

Senor Verez nodded and smiled. "Bienvenidos Senor Banks."

The next girl was "Katherine Geyta-Zones."

"Senorita Geyta-Zones."

There were twelve people in all, not including Verez, in the class. As Bra was in the second-last row, it was some time before they reached her. But Bra was ready.

"Bra Briefs."

The students, as well as Senor Verez, all paused to look at her. Bra added, as an afterthought, "THE Bra Briefs."

Whispers broke out amongst her other eleven classmates. Such as "Oh my God! We have Bra Briefs with us!" and "What is she doing here with us if she's got such a genius for a mom?" and "Whatever. She's still a (censored)."

Senor Verez chose to say, "Senorita Briefs," before he beckoned to the Bryan girl.

"Senorita Bryan, please come up here."

Warily, Bryan got up from her seat and approached the Spaniard. He motioned for her to come nearer. She did.

"Leave, Miss Bryan." The lack of the Spanish term for "miss" clearly defined what Senor Verez thought about swearing in his class, and, quite possibly, what he thought about the swearer.

Bryan's mouth curled up in a sullen frown. She turned back to her seat, but a clipped, "Now" deterred her from her job. Bryan turned on her heel and slunk by Senor Verez and out the door.

Bra sighed in relief. So did her now ten classmates. Senor Verez sighed deeply ad tiredly fingered his broadly arched nose. Remembering his class, he put on a half-smile and turned to Bra Briefs again.

Bra saw a brief spark in Verez' eye she definitely didn't like. Bra didn't see the glimmer again as Senor Verez moved on to the introductions of the last two people left, but it was certainly something to make Bra be on guard.

In Spanish, all that happened besides Laura Bryan getting herself kicked out, was that everyone got materials they would need for the following Spanish classes, like every class before, and a brief introduction. Senor Verez talked about what this class was going to cover and what the weight of every quiz, homework assignment, and test had on the grade, blah, blah, blah. But the class had enough time for each person to pick out a Spanish name for themselves. Bra settled with Rebecca as the closest thing to her name. So she was going to be addressed as Rebecca by her Spanish-mates when they talked to her in class. Senor Verez was just going to say "Senor" or "Senorita" and last name of whomever he was talking to.

The bell rang for the next class and Bra hurriedly stacked up her things. She wanted to get out of there before the now annoying voice of Senor Verez had a chance to call her back in the room. The aqua-haired girl did so successfully, but first having to pretend to not hear the teacher calling after her.

Bra was changing her schedule.

:-:-:-:

When Pan got to her bedroom that day, she dumped her pack on the floor and flopped onto her bedstead. She lay back her head and thought about her day. Specifically, that senior. Whenever she saw him, she was always uncomfortable and baffled, too. That in turn made Pan grumpy. She could take Vegeta's most evil Death Glare and her father's battle gaze. So why couldn't she take a weakling's glance?

_Because he's no weakling_. Pan flinched away from that thought. She came back with, _Oh yeah? Maybe he's not a weakling, but neither are my father or Vegeta, and I can take _them_. Why do you think I can't take _him_ on?_

The voice said just as belligerently, _Your father and Veggie-chan have affection for you in their gazes. He has none. Instead he hides pure hatred in his eyes. But the question is, is the hatred for you, or someone else?  
_


	4. Before the Storm

Pan shot back, _I don't know! But I'm going to find out!_ She stood up and stumped her way downstairs. But then someone knocked on the door and Pan was distracted from her interrogation-wreaking task.

She flounced to the door and opened it. Startled, Pan stared slack-jawed at the person in the doorway.

:-:-:-:

Jeff swung his lacrosse stick around the ball and threw it to Ren, who then threw it to another teammate. Practice was over, but Jeff, Ren, and Ethan were taking their own sweet time with leaving. Ren didn't want to go home to his drunkard of a father, and Ethan was waiting for his ride. Jeff, on the other hand, was playing around before he went to see Dende.

He could feel the kis of the hated Z-senshi at the Lookout and knew that Marc knew too. So Jeff was just playing around.

But then the lacrosse athlete lunged the ball at Ethan and called, "Bye guys, I've gotta go now."

Ren nodded. Ethan hurtled the ball at the captain of the team and lifted his hand in a brief salute before he wrapped his stick around the ball from side to side again.

Jeff chuckled at Ren's underhandedness as he set off. He felt Marc moving off by his ki, but Jeff ignored that for the time being. Marc knew where the Lookout was.

:-:-:-:

Marc put away the posters he hadn't hung up on his locker yet. He continued marching out of the school building, giving everyone he met a short wave or "hi" as he saw fit. The junior walked out of the school building and trekked to his van. He went through his normal routine of chucking his bag into the van and digging through his suitcase to make sure that his surfing things were there. After all, one mustn't make anybody suspicious. Kami knows a lot of that had gone on during Jeff and Marc's freshmen years.

:-:-:-:

Dende indeed did know. He was in fact starting to sweat a mite and praying to the gods above him to let the demi-Saiyans be of a mind to spare him from almost certain death and/or slow torture. He had no real hope, but one never knew.

:-:-:-:

Vegeta scowled at Pan, causing her to smirk, before she asked brusquely, "What do you want, Vegeta?"

"I want to see Kakkarot and your mother." He challenged. Pan lifted an eyebrow and stood her ground. As her little inner self had said, even though Vegeta was scowling at her, there was some affection in there. Pan had grown on the Saiyan Prince, even if the purebred didn't want to admit it.

"And why do you want to see them?" she asked.

Vegeta snorted. "It doesn't concern you, Pan. Now where is the clown?"

The subject of their conversation himself appeared. "Hey Vegeta, what are you doing here?" the Saiyan asked.

Vegeta faced him directly, looking over Pan's shoulder. "Trunks says that there were two people at his new baka high school who are very familiar. Apparently they're familiar enough to make Trunks grimace at the thought of them."

Everyone had gotten used to Vegeta's name metamorphosis over the years. Although he had yet to address Goku properly, he no longer called any of the other Z-senshi any of his nicknames. Even Chichi was named suitably. Ah, but Goku was still a sore spot within Vegeta that refused to fade.

"Really? Who could they be?" Goku asked curiously.

"I don't know, Kakkarot. My daughter confirms the story, and look, even Pan's nodding." It was true, Pan was nodding her head.

Goku turned to his adopted daughter. "Pan? You know what this is about?"

She nodded again and looked at Vegeta. He spoke again. "So far this seems like very insignificant news. The real shocker is that Trunks says that they look like Gohan and Goten."

:-:-:-:

"Dende!" The little Namekian God heard. It didn't sound like the former G duo, so no need to panic, yet. Besides, Jeff and Marc hadn't even left the ground yet.

"Dende!" The person called again. Dende turned and saw Trunks leading Bra, Pan, and Marron, along with Goku, Vegeta, Bulma, Chichi, and Krillin up the tiled floor of the Lookout.

"Hi! Are you here to ask about the two people your children met at school?" Dende asked before any of them could open their mouths.

"Yes, Dende, now out with it. Why did you even send the kids to Orange Star High?" Bulma asked. She was the one who had signed all the next-generation Z-senshi to school, but on Dende's orders. She noticed that Dende wassweating, but she ignored it for the moment. However, Bulma wasn't the only one who noticed.

Dende raised his hands in a calming gesture. "Calm down and let me talk. I can't explain all of the situation to you, but you can know that you know those people at Orange Star High."

"Then they're Gohan and Goten?" Goku asked. He had a worried look on his face, something that was uncharacteristic of him.

Dende looked in his direction and regretfully shook his head. "I can't say. I have to leave this to you to figure out, for only then can everything work out in the way that they're meant to be."

"Then they are them! Come on guys, let's go find them and settle our differences!" Trunks shouted. The Gang started to move and get going, but—

They were deterred by Dende's quiet voice saying, "Wait! It's not as simple as that. You don't even know where they are now, or what their kis even feel like anymore. You don't know what they will feel if you barge in on them and try to make them forgive you. You have to take this slow and easy. You can't rush things like you're about to do now. You must wait!" The short Namekian god stopped and took a deep breath.

He added a little more calmly, "I'm sorry for being so uncharacteristic. Good day to you all, and I hope this situation will work itself out."

The Z-senshi nodded fervently. In twos, or fours, in the case of the Briefs, they left, leaving the Guardian of the Earth alone, and to his doom.

Speaking of doom—

"Hello Dende. Nice speech you said there. Didn't know you had in ya."


	5. Sorrow and Predicaments

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning: sexual harassment

Dende paled and turned around to face the lounging form of Jeff against the huge Rotunda that was Kami's Palace. Marc came out of his spot too, grinning innocently even as he approached the young Guardian of the Earth.

"Uh, hi? I can explain—"

"Why don't you do just that, Dende?" Marc challenged. Jeff nodded, his cold black eyes drilling into their former best friend. Former is a good word.

Dende gulped and nodded. He turned around and led the Brothers Harrison into Kami's Palace. They passed Mr. Popo on the way, but Mr. Popo was busy watering his flowers and only spared them a glance and a gracious, "Hello". Then the watering can lifted and the black face turned again, the red mouth forming into an "O" in surprise. But the trio was already out of sight when Popo-san looked back.

They reached the room where the old Kami usually resided and halted. Jeff sat in mid-air, not wanting to sit on the ground, while Marc did sit on the tiled floor. Dende chose to stand. He leaned on his inherited staff and waited for the Brothers Harrison to get nice and comfy.

They did, and looked at him expectantly for him to start. Coldly, perhaps, but indeed expectantly. Dende fantasized that under that cold shield of hatred, there was perhaps a spark of friendship, but he quickly shook it off. There was no hope for him.

The Namekian took a breath before starting. "I have been watching your lives as they played out, Jeff, Marc. Don't hate me for this, but it hurts me to see you live your lives happily like this. Now, I like seeing you happy, but it just hurts to know that you're doing so while the others are suffering from your leaving. Do you know what Trunks has to go through without you, Marc? And Jeff, there were people in the gang who cared about you. And Marc, as well. I was, _am_, one of them.

"I don't fault you for leaving, I probably would have too, if I were under the same circumstances. But you have no idea what we have gone through without you. The Sons have fallen on hard times emotionally, and the Briefs aren't really doing so well in terms of depression either. The other humans, Krillin and Yamcha, well, they're okay, but not so well without you guys. Piccolo has nearly killed himself with meditating all day every day, and I'm not happy either. Do you know how dangerous it is for a Kami to be operating while he's not happy?" Dende said, then sighed.

"I guess what I'm trying to say is, you two were the hope of the Z-senshi. You still are. I believe that, if all of us get together and try to make up for everything, all our lives will be for the better. Not to mention Pan will finally get a break from trying to resolve unsolved family mysteries."

Jeff snickered at the last statement. Marc smiled himself. Dende faltered, but bravely picked up where he had trailed off.

"You don't have to conciliate with us, but just let us know that you're alive and well. Then we don't have to go half-mad with depression." Dende trailed off again, only to add one last thought.

"I did this to give the others hope. I did this to let you two know that we care about you. We want you back, I want you back, but... I don't know if we'll ever get you back," he whispered.

Dende leaned harder on his staff and bowed his head. His chest heaved and his eyes watered, but Dende refused to cry. Not in front of the Harrisons. Not when he was supposed to be so strong for the others.

He failed.

Tears dripped onto the tiles below the young Namekian, splattering through the silence that had developed after Dende's stirring speech. They startled Dende into hastily rubbing his sleeve over his eyes, even as he looked up. He caught onto Jeff's briefly sorrowful look before the older demi-Saiyan turned his head to look outside. Taking heart at this dubiously optimistic outcome, Dende looked at Marc.

The person formerly known as Goten had his head bowed as well. A guilt- stricken expression was on his face, shaming Dende slightly for speaking so blatantly about the troubles of the Z-senshi. The younger Harrison raised his head even as he blinked away tears. The Son boys had always been rather emotional, even in the midst of battle. But they had learned to hide those emotions, and they were putting that lesson to good use right now.

Jeff was the first to get up, followedlike a ghostby Marc. Marc stepped up to Dende and patted the Namekian on the shoulder, while Jeff said, "We'll see you later, Dende."

They avoided Dende's hopeful gaze as they faced away from Kami's Lookout and flew on home.

:-:-:-:

Marc was too depressed to do anything but mope in his room with his headphones. The bright blue of the paint and the poster of his favorite make-up band, Juliette, did little to cheer up the bright demi-Saiyan. Neither did his poster of Albert Einstein's kindly face nor the two posters of Avril Lavigne do anything.

Marc lifted his dark eyed gaze to the ceiling of his room. Suddenly giving up on his music, he ripped the headphones off and got off his bed. He opened the window of his room open and jumped out of it, needing some fresh air. But Marc didn't launch into the air. He simply allowed his ki to suspend him in air as he pondered on Dende's words.

_I wonder how Kaasan's doing... _The thought came out of nowhere. Marc was distantly surprised at it, for he had not thought anything about his biological mother since that first day they had met the Harrisons,five years ago. It was even a shock.

_Wow, I guess I've really been busy these last five years. I've not even thought about Dad. Or Trunks. I bet Bra's all right, though, but Marron...ouch. I guess we really did leave a hole in them when we left. _

_Oh well. It was either leave or be ignored again... Yeah, let's just keep telling myself that. I hope I'm right..._

A voice spoke behind him, turning Marc around to see the intruder. "You okay, otouto?" Marc looked back out to the sea the Harrisons lived near and said, "Not really."

Jeff sighed himself. "I know what you mean. I seriously didn't know that Dende could speak so movingly."

Marc smiled briefly as Jeff came to lean on his brother's windowsill. Marc moved backwards and sat on the said pillar, lining him up against Jeff.

Silence reigned once more as they both looked out to see, enjoying the beautiful clash that the forests made with the sandy beach next to their house. Then Marc's voice hesitantly asked, "Were we right in leaving? I mean, I know it was right to leave, but—were we right to stay away? To let the situation get so bad that Dende took drastic action? I'm not sure if I like hearing about them this way."

It was some time before Jeff answered, during which Marc looked to him in insecurity. Finally Jeff said, "I'm not sure if I like hearing that they're in various stages of depression, either, Marc. I'm not even sure if we should have stayed away, now. I guess we could have sent them a letter or something, but... I don't know, squirt."

Marc nodded and they both said nothing again. Then Linda stomped up the stairs past the bedroom with a sandwich in her hands, ruining the mood and reminding the demi-Saiyans of their food predicament. Food was good, especially in times of depression. Surprisingly, there had been many times of depression for the Brothers Harrison, all of which had been smoothed over slightly with food.

Wonders never ceased with those two.

:-:-:-:

Trunks was restless. He always was restless, but the feeling was just worse now. With the possibility of parole in the case of _the Son Brothers v. The Z-senshi_, Trunks was eager to get the friendship of two of the most cherished people in his life back, but what could he do against the orders of Kami? He sighed and ran his fingers through his hair. This was not good.

Bra came up with Pan trailing behind. They paused at the sight of Trunks looking at nothing and immediately understood. Well, Pan didn't understand, but Bra certainly did. She had had many happy memories of the G brothers herself. Bra knew, however, that she didn't have it as bad as Trunks did. Trunks had had a best friend in Goten, and he had looked up to Gohan as the big brother he had never had. So did Bra, but she wasn't nearly as affected, because she had had Trunks for an older brother, not just Gohan or Goten.

Pan was uncomprehending of the hugeness of the situation, but she was plenty affected by the depressed atmosphere. Whoever those people really were, she hoped that they came back soon, for this was just too much for her.

:-:-:-:

Two and a half weeks passed. Bra found that she couldn't exactly change her schedule for foreign language. The other foreign language classes were full except for German Two and German Two Honors, and Bra couldn't speak German if it cost her life. So she was stuck with the creepy Senor Verez.

In the last class of Thursday on the second full week at school, Bra was squirming worse than ever under Verez' gaze. He had been staring at her all these past few weeks, making her think that she had something on her face all the time. She shuddered. She didn't like Senor Verez anymore. In fact, she had even torn out the first page on which she had written his name, it was that bad.

The youngest child of Bulma Briefs, Capsule Genius, tried to concentrate on the work of the class. She could feel Verez' eyes on her. Goosebumps were running up and down her arms and her hair was rising on the nape of her neck, but there was nothing she could do about it. Unless she cut class. Bra was beginning to take that notion seriously, even under the wrath of her mother. Dad wouldn't really care, but Mother would be fit to be tied. Right now, though, she really didn't care.

Reaching out to Trunks for comfort, she called to him, Trunks? It was a mental link they rarely ever used, but it was there all the same.

Yeah? Trunks answered. He sounded a little rusty, and surprised,in her head, and Bra knew that she must sound the same to him.

Trunks, this Spanish teacher is scaring me, she started.

What? Why? Trunks asked, worry creeping into his mental voice.

Well, he keeps staring at me all the time. I don't know why, but I think he might... like me or something. I don't know. I don't like it.

Grr... That Spanish teacher better stay away from you. He's going to get a fist in the face and some seriously broken ribs if he doesn't.

Thanks, Trunks. I think I'll cut this class though.

That might be a good idea. I'd explain the situation to Mom first before you did that.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Let's hope Dad doesn't take him out for even staring at me.

Let's hope I don't.

Heh. A pregnant pause. I'd sure hate to be Senor Verez if Mom sued the school. That's his name, Verez.

Verez, huh? I'm going to keep tabs on him. But if he attempts to hit on ya, tell me OK? This is a family business now. You're not alone in this, lil sis.

Bra smiled at this. She was glad she had talked to Trunks now. Yeah. Thanks again, Trunks.

Anything for my lil sis.

They broke off their mental conversation and returned to their scholarly duties, both worried and shaken.

Verez continued to stare at Bra, unknowing of the conversation that had just gone on. Luckily for Bra, something interrupted his private musings, whatever they were.

A knock.

"¿Sí?" Verez asked. The door opened and Jeff came in with another person whom Bra recognized as a junior but knew not her name.

"Hello Senor Verez," the girl said. Senor Verez nodded and looked questioningly at them.

Jeff nudged the junior, who stepped up first. "I came to see if you needed anything else. Paper, supplies, all that."

Verez raised an index finger and went to his desk. He pulled out a list and said, "Yes, we do, Senorita Hatting. It says here that Senor Banks still needs his flashcards, and that Senorita Briefs requested a new binder for her Spanish things."

Jeff interceded with, "Uh, Senor Verez, that's the reason why I'm here. It seems that Ms. Briefs requested a schedule change of the Student Council. I need to discuss with her an update on the matter, if that's okay with you, Senor?"

Verez nodded. Bra had been silently packing her things up from the second sentence of Jeff's explanation and was all ready to go. She passed whispers behind her back saying, "She wanted a schedule change? What, she doesn't think we're good enough for her?" and "Good. Now Verez can stop staring at her and look at us for a change." It seemed that she was not the only one who noticed that Verez' attention was elsewhere.

She reached the bottom of the grandstand and scooted hurriedly across the path of her Spanish teacher. She reached Jeff, who nodded and let her through. They heard Hatting tell Verez that they would get his supplies over the weekend and have the supplies to him by Tuesday at the very latest. Then she emerged from the classroom and wiped a hand across her eyebrow.

"Whew! Glad that's over. Well, I gotta get running. I'm almost late for class and I still gotta get Verez' order in." Jeff and Bra nodded at her back as she took off running.

"Bye Rachel!" Jeff called. Bra looked at him questioningly, her opinion of his hotness severely damaged by Verez' creepiness. So she did not go all hot and woozy at the sight of him anymore. Which was a good thing.

"That's Rachel Hatting. She's nice," Jeff told her. "So, your offer of changing your schedule still up? There's a class of French I free now. One of the guys in there switched to Spanish III Honors at the last minute."

Bra nodded, the tension in her stomach lessening a mite. She knew that she wasn't out of the running yet, however. There was still outside of class to consider.

"That's fine," She murmured.

"Great. Tell me, why do you want to change classes? If it's personal, you don't have to say," Jeff smiled. He noticed the closed expression on his companion's face and derived a clue from it that should not have been revealed.

But Bra said anyway, "Verez keeps staring at me. It's creepy." She was startled with the vehemence with which Jeff responded.

"What? That's not good. Oh man." At Bra's look Jeff pressed on. "Verez has a dirty rep when being around girls who fascinate him. You don't want to know what he's rumored to have done. Oh man."

Bra was unsettled. Verez? Bad rep? She felt her instincts being confirmed as she listened to the senior. "What? What has he done?"

"You don't want to know. I would stay away from him if I were you. It's a good thing that you got the schedule change. I'd tell the principal about this, too."

"No! I mean, I don't want to." Bra wasn't a scared person. But when she was, she tended to try to keep that fear to herself and deal with it herself. She actually wasn't a snob or a whiner as most people would think. Trunks and the rest of her family knew that as well as she did. If Bra was threatened, she was going to fight back.

Jeff looked at her askance, but only said, "Okay. At least tell your parents," he offered as an afterthought.

Bra muttered under her breath, "Believe me, I will."

Jeff heard this, but chose to ignore it as if he were any other human. They proceeded to the office where Mrs. Robbington confirmed the change in the schedule and sent Bra back off to Spanish class, saying that she would start French class on Monday. Bra pouted a bit but went back, more than a trifle unwillingly. On the way, she decided that she would cut the rest of the class. She was already out of it, wasn't she? Might as well.

:-:-:-:

Jeff exited the office, leaving a busy Mrs. Robbington behind. It was the end of his free period and he met up with his brother Marc. He quietly told Marc of Bra's predicament.

"Really? Verez had better stay away from Bra, if he knows what's good for him." Marc declared. Jeff nodded his agreement.

"I agree, Marc. But Verez won't know if we don't drop hints."

"True. But I think that Trunks has a fair chance of doing his own work here. Let him take the first step."

"Good idea, squirt. But he had better start moving fast."

"Yeah." The bell rang for the next class and they hurriedly sprinted off.


	6. Explanations

Coming home, Bra breezed through the business section of Capsule Corps and straight into the residence. She immediately flung her bag onto the couch and dashed for the elevator. She punched the button for the bedroom floor and impatiently waited for it to stop. Once it did, she instantly sprinted to her room and dressed into her casual clothes. After the long school day of being stared at by Verez, she wanted to cast away anything that reminded her of that horrible institution. Including her current outfit.

Finished, she flopped onto her bed and picked up a pen and her diary.

:-:-:-:

Trunks looked after his sister worriedly as she ran for the elevator. It was definitely apparent that she was being harassed by that Spanish teacher of hers. She'd told Trunks that she had switched her foreign language to French, effective Monday, and she was planning on cutting the Spanish class on Friday. She'd already cut it today, and was thinking about taking the long way to her classes, skirting Verez' Spanish class on her way to Mandatory English.

Trunks had approved of those methods, but wondered when Bra was going to break the news to their parents. Hopefully it was today, and when Trunks was not in range of Bulma's tantrum voice. He winced. His mother was never a good person to be around when she was mad.

Trunks sighed. It'd been a long day, made longer by the fact that Marc and Jeff were constantly on his mind, yet in person they really didn't do anything to him. He wondered why. If he had been the one wronged, he would have ignored his former friends, leaving them to fend for themselves. Which, Trunks realized, was exactly what they were doing. They weren't helping out, but they were being talkative, seeming like they were helping. Trunks shook his head.

Revenge was complicated.

The demi-Saiyan prince started the weary trudge to the elevator himself, planning to go to the computer lab to start on that essay he'd been assigned today. Another sigh escaped the purple-haired teenager's mouth. History was so not his best subject.

:-:-:-:

Half an hour later, Trunks heard the distinctive screech of shock and anger coming from his mother's private lab. Wincing in pity, he reached out and found his sister's link.

Did you just tell Mom about Verez then?  he asked, thanking his mother that she'd designed the lab far away from the computer lab, where no sharp-eyed people could come in and see her secrets.

Yeah. She's taking it real well. Bra responded dryly. The siblings shared nervous chuckles. She's actually threatening to castrate him if he comes near me.

Trunks winced. Ouch. Much as I hate Verez right now, I'm not sure that's an OK punishment.

Heh. I think I'll just suggest to Mom that we sue him. Or better yet, see exactly why he's got a bad reputation with girls.

WHAT?! Trunks screeched, his rage coming to the surface again. WHY DIDN'T YOU TELL ME?!

Heh. Must have slipped my mind when we were coming home. Bra laughed nervously again, but rushed on when Trunks would have butted in. I was thinking we could do like a background investigation, see what he's gotten into.

Trunks grumbled about his sister's pride. Bra's impatience, though, motivated him to agree with her. Yeah, all right. Told Mom that yet?

Yep. She immediately latched onto the idea and is even now hacking into the City mainframe.

Trunks laughed, a sound that would have sent chills down that of any whom heard it. Go Mom. I think I'll join her when I'm done with my History essay.

Need help? I need to get out of here, Bra complained.

Please. You always were better at writing essays anyway. Kami knows how that came to be.

Bra grinned at that as she slipped by her furious mother, who was clacking away at her laptop at the speed of light. By Bulma's expression, she had contacted Vegeta through their bond, and Bra could only imagine what her father's reaction was. She hoped the Gravity Dome didn't have to be fixed tomorrow.

She wound through the halls to the computer lab, letting her brother's ki guide her. It was fortunate that Gohan had taught her how to sense ki all those years ago. Bra never would have found Trunks then.

Blinking back sudden tears, Bra pushed through the doors of the lab. She ignored the sudden onslaught of all those huge black blank screens staring accusingly at her, instead making her way across to Trunks at his personal favorite. She sat down, pulled a page of Trunks' essay toward her, and started to read.

:-:-:-:

At dinner at the Harrisons' that day, Jeff, Marc, and Linda entertained their parents with their stories of their school day. Marc's was especially fun, as he and Bobby had teamed up against Ivory and Lindsay in an impromptu boys-vs.-girls game of Keep Away with Lindsay's cell phone.

When Marc finished, ending with Bobby being tackled by Ivory at last, the whole table laughed. Marc just shrugged and went back to his food. The table finally calmed down long enough for Myna to ask casually,

"So, how's the situation with the biological family going?"

Jeff and Marc both looked at Myna simultaneously, Marc just swallowing his food. Obviously Jeff and Marc had told their family about the Z-senshi coming to their school. They had also filled them in on what had happened all those years ago, but Jeff had yet to tell them about Verez' harassment of Bra. He did so now, watching as not only their adoptive parents, but also Linda's as well, faces darkened with anger and dislike.

"I knew that Verez was nothing but trouble. I'm glad that Linda took Spanish with Malorie Pitcher," Myna muttered.

Linda nodded as well, her relief clearly evident on her face. Verez had come to teach the year she graduated, and she had heard plenty about the oh-so-charming teacher with the dark obsession for pretty girls. Jeff, then Marc, had added to those rumors about Verez' antics before he had come to OSH. So far Verez hadn't tried anything, to the knowledge of the Harrison Brothers, but the whole student body, mainly junior and senior girls, stayed on guard.

And now it seemed time for action.

"So far the only thing we can do is nothing. Bra seems to want to handle it herself, and it's likely that she'll tell her family. But if Verez continues to harass her, then action will have to be taken. I'm going to notify the Student Council tomorrow about the harassment problem, but I won't name any names if I can. I'll try to get them to formulate a school plan to use against Verez if we need it, and also make plans to keep Verez away from Bra or any other girls he seems to like," Jeff told his family between bites.

Marc pitched in with his own plans to rally Ivory, Bobby, and Lindsay, as well as a few other people he knew, to Bra's cause. Jeff nodded agreement to those plans and mentioned something about officially warning the sophomores and freshmen, instead of letting rumors abound about it. He was only going to do this if the Student Council agreed to do this, or if he seriously thought there was danger from Verez. As there was nothing but strong suspicions now,

Jeff and Marc could do nothing but what they'd already planned.

That being said, the dinner returned to normal, with only the pensive mutterings every so often to indicate that the conversation had ever taken place.

:-:-:-:

There was chaos also at the Son household as Pan told her parents of the little pickle Bra was in. Goku and Chichi were very concerned, of course, but both were confident that Bra could take care of herself. After all, her father was Vegeta.

However, they both also agreed that Pan should keep a sharp eye out for Verez when he came around.

The matter of Gohan and Goten was also discussed that night. Pan was told whom exactly they were, why they were so important to the Z-senshi, and why they left. Pan was shocked to hear that Chichi and Goku had ignored the G brothers to the point of abuse, but understood the situation. Sometimes she felt that her parents weren't listening to her, that they were ignoring her. But those moments always passed, and the family was as happy as happy could be, except for Pan's temper and the fits of depression the elder Sons annually went into.

When Pan went to bed that night, she didn't fall asleep immediately as she almost always did. Instead images of Gohan and Goten ran rampant around in her head, whirling around until they merged into the faces of Jeff and Marc. The faces slowed their circling around in her head and settled into solidity before her eyes. Pan, sleepy by this time, stared at their features. She grinned slightly when they smiled gently at her, her eyes drifting closed. The images of their features smiling stayed with her as she slept.


	7. Tempest Call

The next day, Friday, dawned sluggishly. It was still dark at 5:15 in the morning when Jeff awoke to his alarm. Looking out of the window on the left side of his bed, he could see why.

Large grey clouds loomed like sky monoliths everywhere in the sky he could see. Nowhere could he see any spots of cheery blue, and already small droplets of rain were dripping down his window. However, it wasn't raining full out, which was good enough for a spar.

Jeff's head fell back onto his pillow. There were times when he didn't feel like getting out of bed; rainy days definitely were one of those times. This was a rainy day, and this was one of those times.

&lt;!--more--&gt;With a groan, Jeff pulled himself out of his longer-than-normal double bed. He scooped a shirt off of the footrest of the bed and pulled it on, yawning as he went. He yanked on loose-fitting sweats that would serve as a warm buffer against any rain that came down. He didn't bother with a hat, for it would just fly off in the spar and never be seen again. Such was the demise of two hats before, so Jeff knew what he was thinking about.

He trudged wearily downstairs were Marc was already making an appearance. The two exchanged good mornings and Jeff dropped into a chair with a sigh.

Marc studied his older brother. Jeff no longer felt good on rainy days, and was even more uncomfortable during typhoons. It just didn't seem like Jeff and water agreed anymore. It was because of that surfing accident that had grounded Jeff forever that this was the case. It had been a rainy day like this and dreadfully stormy out on the waters that Sunday. Yet Jeff had still gone out to surf that day, mainly because he'd been deeply hurt by one of his dear friends and surfing had always lessened his problems.

Normally Jeff would not have gone surfing on such a stormy day, but his judgement had been clouded by the anger and pain in his heart. Why did Ryan have to do that to him? Didn't it count that they'd been friends for the better part of three years?

Jeff had been so angry that he'd failed to notice the riptide area he'd entered into. And with the storm surge already beginning to surface, the situation could only get worse, as it did.

Jeff had been pulled in by the riptide and had struggled to escape. His surfboard had been ripped to shreds by the tide, and the Jeff had barely gotten out of there alive. Luckily, Marc had registered his untimely disappearance and had rushed to he rescue along with other surfers he'd contacted along the way. They had pulled Jeff from the surf and had called an ambulance for him. Later Marc had met up with his parents and his sister, awaiting news of Jeff and both hoping for and dreading the news to come.

Finally, hours and hours later, a nurse had come to tell the Harrisons that Jeff was alive and stable. His condition was still guarded, but there was a reduced chance that Jeff would go into shock. He would be kept at the hospital for a few more days to keep an eye on him, but otherwise they didn't have to worry anymore.

When Jeff had come home, he'd been as subdued as he was now. He'd meekly bore the grounding that he'd received from his parents, which had been no surfing for a month, then restricted to surfing only a day a week. Jeff hadn't said anything much that day, nor even the week after. But then Jeff had discovered lacrosse, and things had started to look up for the Harrison hybrid Saiyan.

However, when his ban on surfing was lifted after the set month, and Jeff had surfed for the first time, he'd come home to announce that he'd quit surfing. Myna and Jack had definitely been relieved, but Linda and Marc, especially, had demanded to know why. Jeff had explained that he couldn't even think about surfing without thinking about his accident, and he couldn't have fun if he was doing that. So lacrosse had filled his life instead of surfing.

Lacrosse helped him through the therapy sessions attended to recover from both the surfing and the suicide of Ryan. It helped Jeff through many of the internal problems he'd had in between the sessions, and had also played an indirect part in Jeff's getting control of his life back. Of course, the family had helped too, especially in the latter, but still, whenever there was a storm Jeff would get lethargic and unenthusiastic, an almost automatic action. The condition was better than when Jeff had just been about to start sophomore year, but some things never faded.

A hand waved in front of Marc's eyes, snapping him out of his reverie. Marc blinked and looked at Jeff, whose eyebrow had raised slightly to accentuate the inquiry,

"You okay, lil bro? You went and spaced out on me there," he added, his face relaxing into its normal expression of an amused smirk. Marc was glad to see it, but kept the conversation going with a grin of his own.

"I guess I do that to you a lot, huh?" Marc asked sheepishly.

"Yeah, you do," Jeff said, his hands spreading apart and coming up in a gesture of confusion. "What's up with that?"

Marc shrugged himself. "I don't know," his grin still sheepish, "I guess I have a lot to think about."

Jeff threw him an incredulous look. "You, think?" he asked, bursting into laughter at the indignant look he earned from his brother.

"You're gonna get a beating for that uncalled for remark, you mongrel," Marc threatened, shaking his fist menacingly at Jeff.

"Mongrel? Is that the best you can come up with?" Jeff's look turned into true incredulity at Marc's less-than-satisfactory attempt at an insult.

"Yeah," Marc replied, his sheepish grin returning to his face. Jeff exploded into laughter again, holding his stomach as Marc started laughing himself. The Go brothers lapsed into this new phase of the morning, laughing until their stomachs hurt and tears were streaming down Jeff's face.

Marc stopped laughing first, watching his brother forget, even for a singular slice of time, that it was raining and usually not a happy time for him. He hated seeing Jeff so depressed on rainy days; it was an ugly reminder of that day.

Jeff ceased laughing with difficulty. Every so often, he'd chuckle again, resulting in another battle for control. He clapped a hand on Marc's shoulder, still snickering and said, "C'mon, Marc," he broke into full laughter again, "let's spar before we lose the chance." Laughter overtook Jeff again as he followed his younger brother out into the dreary world waiting for them.

:-:-:-:

When they trooped back into the house dirty, but cheerful, Myna immediately noticed that her sons were much happier than usual for a rain day lately, especially Jeff. The elder brother was at ease for the first rainy day since that surfing accident two years ago. Jeff looked as though he had even been laughing. Myna wondered what could have made Jeff so cheerful to forget it was raining, or starting to. Jack noticed too, and shared a significant look with his wife as the G brothers greeted them, then headed upstairs for their showers.

Jeff came down dressed in a comfortable black turtleneck with a white stripe across the middle, khaki cargo pants, and his favorite Birkenstocks. He sat in his chair at the table and commenced to eat the pancakes laid out before them, slyly snagging two pancakes from Jack's plate in the going. While Marc came down, Jeff considered taking some more, but stopped at the look on his father's face. He switched gears and went for two of Linda's instead, knowing his sister would wake up late and be rushed for time anyway.

Marc grinned at his brother's sneaky tactics. He was dressed in a green plaid long-sleeved t-shirt and another t-shirt underneath. He wore baggy dark blue track pants and sturdy flip-flops, his favorite ones. Myna shook her head at her son's typical mix-and-match fashion statement, to which Marc simply snickered.

As Myna sat down and laid her tea mug on the table, she eyed the cheerful Jeff. She commented in what she hoped was a casual tone,

"So, Jeff, you seem very upbeat for a rainy day."

Jeff looked up at her, his fork still in his mouth. Myna had to keep from smiling and instead opted for a raised eyebrow. Marc gulped, as she looked so much like his brother when she did that that it was eerie. Jack put down his newspaper and also looked at Jeff. Marc chose to help his brother out and instead stole his share of two pancakes from Myna's plate, right under her nose.

Jeff swallowed his pancake bite and took the fork out of his mouth.

"What? Am I usually not this way on a rainy day?" Jeff asked innocently. Marc relieved the tension by snort derisively, just as Jeff had intended for him to. Jeff smirked at his cynical brother and went on in a more mature tone,

"Yeah, Marc and I were having this brief brotherly spat before our regular spar this morning, and, wait, what was it you called me?" This he asked of Marc, squinting absent-mindedly at his brother.

"Uh mfgh grfhh," mumbled Marc, earning him sharp glances from his parents. He swallowed his food at last and repeated, "A mongrel."

"Oh, yeah," Jeff said, remembering. He snorted into laughter again, the chuckles causing his parents to look at each other strangely. Jeff caught those looks and attempted to explain, calming himself down slightly in the process. Marc just kept on eating after a failed attempt to obtain one and a half pancakes from Jeff's plate. A fork planted securely into the pancakes had been in his way, placed there by a meaningful-eyed Jeff.

Jeff continued, keeping one bright eye on Marc's motions, "We were warming up a serious name-calling contest when Marc pulls this really fantastic bravado line, and he flunks it, calling me a mongrel at the end. It was just so pathetic, it was hysterical." A reminiscing grin lingered on his face as he added, "I'll be laughing at that all day."

Myna and Jack smiled too. Maybe Jeff would get over his rainy-day depression. Maybe not. The only thing they could do was hope that Jeff would get over the final obstacle to his full mental recovery, and see a particle of that hope bloom for a single moment in time.

A beep from Jack's watch alerted the brothers to the fact that it was 8:00. Time to get moving. Jeff got up and carried his half-full plate to the sink, eating the rest of the one and a half pancakes on the way to it. Marc gulped down his portion and left the plate on the table, leaving it to give Myna a kiss on the cheek. Jeff grabbed their backpacks and gave his mother his own kiss, parting also with a roguish wink to Linda as she rushed in. He shared amused grins with Jack as Linda found her plate almost empty of pancakes, then headed out of the door before his sister could shriek at him.

Jeff headed to the van where Marc was already waiting patiently in the driver's seat. They smirked at each other as Jeff strapped his seat belt on. Marc started the car and they were off.

:-:-:-:

By the time the Harrison van arrived at OSH, many jokes had been shared, keeping up Jeff's good humor and the relaxation of the situation. Marc had been the recipient of many dry glares while sarcastic remarks spewed out of Jeff's mouth, nullifying the glares and eliciting laughter from the recipient, Marc. This was normal for the brothers on their way to OSH, but not while the skies above were preparing to cry.

Marc parked the car. Jingling the keys, he came around the end of the van and walked with Jeff to the doors of OSH to start the new day.

:-:-:-:

Trunks followed Logan to their first period of Friday, which was Study Hall with Mr. Aethonan in Room 117. Coming in, they immediately spotted Marc, Ivory, Bobby, and Lindsay already in their seats. Dwight was there, too, hanging out with two sophomore boys Bra surely knew the names of. Pan, surprisingly, was there as well; she was known amongst the Z-senshi as being as late to everything as her father, Goku. It was likely Chichi's work Pan was here on time.

Marron showed up, Bra in tow, both gossiping happily. They split up to join their own friends, Marron with Trunks and Logan, Bra with Pan and their new mutual friend, Daisuke (1), who was a boy and a sophomore too. Mandy and her two giggly friends had been transferred to a new teacher for study hall after Mr. Aethonan had reported them for being too loud. In their places were Derrick, Tor, and Daisuke. Bra had been happy and immediately made friends with Daisuke, while Derrick and Tor had brushed her off and walked over to Dwight.

Two slim and uber-confident senior girls slipped in five minutes late, only one of whom was supposed to be in this class. Aethonan allowed the second girl to stay when she explained (quite boredly) that she had a free period and she wouldn't bother the class. Trunks raised an eyebrow at that but didn't mention his thoughts to anyone.

Then came the spotlight stars of the study hall, the wimpy-looking Ren and the charismatic Jeff. Trunks relaxed slightly upon seeing Jeff, but not very. He'd been worried that Jeff wouldn't come. He didn't exactly want to admit it, but he needed to see Jeff and Marc in the flesh before his eyes. He needed to reassure himself that he still had a chance to redeem himself to them; that they had not run away again. He'd immediately seen Marc, so his fears about Marc had been laid to rest for the day, but he still could not rest until Jeff came. Well, now he had, and Trunks' day was complete.

Sighing in part-relief and part-tiredness, Trunks pulled out his History essay. _Thank Dende for my sister_, Trunks thought, as he looked it over. _I never would have been able to get to bed as early as 11:35 last night if it weren't for her._ Trunks frowned as he caught a potential mistake, but relaxed as he remembered it was fine.

"Strange," he heard Logan say. Turning up and around to look at him, Trunks asked, "What's strange?"

"Jeff." Logan pointed a finger at the senior.

"Jeff?" Trunks asked, swiveling around again to look at him. He looked back at his friend again, seeing nothing wrong. Bobby, behind them, looked too, and said,

"Yeah, that is strange." Upon saying that, he nudged Marc and conferred with him. Marc flashed a grin at Bobby and snickered, then went back to his work.

Marron and her free-period friend Natalie were too busy working on the last-minute details of their own History essays to pay any attention, but Sarah, another free-period girl working with them, looked up and over with them at Jeff too.

Her eyes popped out and she quickly turned to Natalie and Marron. Natalie's head poked around Marron's body to see Jeff laugh, and her eyes widened as well. Marron leaned in to ask the two what was so weird, just as a frustrated Trunks did the same to Logan.

"What's strange about Jeff? He's usually that way, even in the morning," Trunks grumbled to himself. He had never ever been a morning person.

"Not on rainy days. I've never seen Jeff smile on rainy days, ever. Charlotte over there told me," Logan said, pointing over at the senior girl who wasn't supposed to be in there with them, "she told me that Jeff loved rainy days when they were freshmen. But then he had a surfing accident on a rainy day, and Jeff's never liked them since."

"And he also quit surfing because of that," Logan added a second later. He bowed his head quickly and pretended to work when the teacher looked sharply in his direction. Trunks did, too, but with a thoughtful frown on his face. He carefully stapled the pages of his essay together and put it in his History folder. He put that aside and went into his backpack for his Spanish III notebook. He had a test today, and was fairly sure he would ace it. No harm in making sure.

But why would Jeff quite surfing because of an accident? Especially if he was Gohan? Had it been life-or-death, that accident? That was the only thing Trunks could think of that would cause someone like Jeff or Gohan to quit doing something once they'd committed to it. Trunks doubted that Gohan would have quit anyway. He, Goten, and Trunks had been though so much in their lives and Gohan had never quit fighting. Maybe that was because fighting was necessary, Trunks admitted to himself. Surfing was necessary.

Still, Trunks couldn't envision Gohan ever quitting at anything. One more chalk line up for Jeff against Gohan.

Had that accident been life-or-death or not?

Marc watched Trunks while Jeff watched Marc and Trunks stared at Jeff. Marc and Jeff amused themselves with mental conversations about Trunks' efforts to be subtle, which only made him stand out more. They also somehow managed to get some of that day's homework done, having done last night's before they came home yesterday. It was also an extended period, so there was plenty of time.

Jeff put down his pencil, having finished the last of the "hard" homework for AP English. He'd already done AP Japanese, AP Latin, and AP World History. Now the AP Physics and AP Calculus would be a snap of his fingers. He stretched, then decided to have a little fun.

Reaching out, he skimmed mental fingers over Trunks' mind. Trunks shuddered immediately and sat bolt upright, searching for the perpetrator. Jeff retracted promptly from Trunks defenses before Trunks could lock on him. Grinning wickedly to himself, Jeff reached for Marron next.

She, too, shuddered and cast about for the intruder, but Jeff had already moved on. Bra was next to show a reaction, but she managed not to look around. Daisuke did notice she suddenly looked uncomfortable, however. Jeff merely snickered in time with a joke Ren delivered that was really bad.

Pan noticed also that Bra was uncomfortable, but she didn't look as if she was physically uncomfortable. There was a distant look on her face as if she were daydreaming, or talking mentally to someone. Pan thrust up her mental guards and strengthened them, just in time for someone to come knocking.

Hmm, you're fast. Saw what happened to the others and put up your guards. Nice. An amused voice resounded in her head in between her ears.

Who are you? Pan demanded angrily. She sought to identify the infiltrator just beyond her fortress, but the unknown dodged her consciousness and went circling in the other direction.

Tsk, tsk, tsk. You wouldn't want to be rude to your guest, now would you? the interloper asked in a tone that was nearly taunting, but not there yet.

Pan glowered as she tried to keep track of the invader in her head. I didn't even invite you into my head. You're trespassing, she told the voice.

True, but I'm here now, aren't I? Better treat me nice if you want me to leave, the anonymous encroacher teased.

Pan's eyes narrowed even more into a glare. I will not. You are being rude, trespassing into my head like this when I don't know you, have never seen you, don't know what your life is like, and you don't know what my life is like. So you get out of my head now and start respecting other people's privacy, Pan told the interloper firmly.

The amused voice came back to her mockingly. Nice speech. How about you take your own advice sometime?

What? What are you talking about? Pan asked furiously. Tell me! She got no answer but the feeling of emptiness the unknown parted with as it vacated the premises. Pan was left to figure out in vain the cryptic message and who, or what, had just told it to her.

On a hunch, Pan looked up and around. Trunks looked stunned still, Marron was shifty-eyed, and Bra was still uncomfortable, though with dark-haired Daisuke focusing on her, it didn't seem it would be that way for long. Pan ignored them and looked around for any potential psychics. _Hmm…that pale-skinned girl sitting by Marc certainly looks suspicious, as does Marc himself. Bobby…he's too cheerful to do something as evil as the unknown just did. Lindsay's too friendly. _Pan knew both Lindsay and Bobby and discarded them both.

She looked at Charlotte and her friend, Alice. _Nope, both are too airhead-y to do it. _Pan doubted that they even knew what telepathy was. However, she paused at one of the sophomore boys Dwight was talking to, Tor. He wore a princely air, as if the world revolved around him. Pan almost immediately disliked him, but was surprised when he smiled; then he looked cute. Pan looked quickly away.

Her eyes landed on Jeff and Ren. Immediately she suspected Jeff. She remembered the compromised air she had felt—still felt—on her first day of school and her desire to fight him and see how strong he was. She narrowed her eyes and watched every move he made as he put away a binder and brought out another one. From here she could distinctly make out that the new one as AP Calculus, while the old one had been AP Physics.

Pan shook her head. With five years of her mother's tutelage under her belt, Pan could take on Advanced Calculus just fine, but AP Calculus? No way. She admired people who could take it and finish a homework assignment in approximately…11 minutes. OK. That's just creepy.

Pan shook her head again, this time to clear it. She looked back down at her Chemistry assignment and sighed. Science was not her strong suit at all. Luckily, she knew someone who lived for science. Three people, actually. Time to pick the brain of the youngest female one, so to speak.

Twenty-five minutes later, the study hall ended. Pan had just barely completed her Chemistry assignment and was even filing it away into her backpack when the bell rang. Feet stomped out and away into the hallway for the second period, rushing by like a train by an abandoned train station. Pan blew her hair out from her face as the last person went out the door. She picked up her heavy backpack easily and followed the last ones out. She escaped from behind them and headed to her next class, Mandatory English.

The school day passed, and rain finally fell.

:-:-:-:

All sports practices were canceled that day, except for the hardy cross-country team, which had a huge following despite the all-weather and all-terrain policy the team sturdily upheld.

Jeff was kind of disappointed that lacrosse practice was canceled, but not so much that he couldn't find something else to do. Marc was definitely glad, for then soccer was unavailable and he could watch the surfing competition being held out on Lake St. Chennyspeare later that afternoon. It was still going despite the light drizzle they were getting; Marc was glad because he'd been looking forward to this contest all month.

Marc wasn't going to compete in the contest, because, quite frankly, with Jeff gone, there was no competition for him in surfing. Marc had entered exactly three surfing competitions since Jeff had quit, and he'd made off with the gold easily, too easily. No one compared to him like Jeff had. They couldn't, either, with their human genes being inferior to a hybrid Saiyan's. There was just no way.

Bra wasn't happy that tennis practice was canceled. She loved tennis! It helped that the tennis coach was a woman who could actually teach tennis in a fun and creative way, so that Bra was hooked almost immediately (Bad pun right there, but it was not intentional). Pan didn't care if field hockey was canceled or not; she could actually be using her time better. Marron felt the same as Bra about tennis and was almost in tears at seeing the announcement. Trunks was the same as Pan for his own chosen sport, lacrosse (3), which he had found he shared with Jeff, Ethan, and Ren. He was still on the JV team, but he didn't care if he made it to varsity or not. Still, he was going to have to find something to do at home.

Jut then, the whole group overheard Ivory, Marc's friend, telling Rachel Hatting about a surfing contest that was taking place on Lake St. Chennyspeare. It seemed Marc was going, but not competing. Ivory was going to compete, since there were going to be some major waves to surf on this rainy day.

The group shared glances. Trunks immediately snapped out his cell phone to call his parents. Bra gave hers to Pan to operate. Marron produced her own cell phone and dialed her number. One by one, the four got permission to stay after to watch the contest; they did have to explain that Marc/Goten was going there, and it was a perfect opportunity to snoop about. The last sentence sealed it for all of them and, following the satellite directions beamed down onto Trunks' cell, they drove in the Capsule Jet to Lake St. Chennyspeare. There they found hundreds of surfers flocking about with rubber wetsuits on and surfboards, even dogs running everywhere. Somehow these rascally animals did not get trampled underfoot or sink into the wet sand they ran on.

Looking around, the group hurriedly found a shelter to huddle under for the contest. The first five surfers had already had their battle with Mother Nature, now it was just thirteen more. However, only four made it onto the waves before the rain was finally too much, and the surfers had to abandon the premises. However, two people did not head home right away, and it was these two the Z-senshi group II locked on.

The two were indeed Marc and Jeff, and Jeff was grumpy. Marc simply ignored him in favor of looking for his backpack. He'd put it somewhere on the sand and couldn't remember where. Luckily, it was not the messenger bag that held his homework, it merely held his own surfer things that could fit in there.

Seeing a dark shape in the rain, Marc ran towards it. Recognizing it immediately, Marc let out a joyful cry and picked the backpack up. behind him, Jeff rolled his eyes. But then a scream made the Harrison Brothers whip around and stare at the dark blue head wafting out to sea.

"Bra!" they cried out at the same time and sprinted towards the others (whose ki signatures had been carefully monitored this whole time). By the time they got there, Bra had already slipped way beyond swimming reach. And with each wave, she kept getting further and further away.

Marc muttered, "Damn."

"My sentiments exactly. Do you have your surfboard with you, Marc?" Jeff asked, never taking his eyes off Bra.

"Yep, in the van. Want me to go get it?" Marc responded.

"Why aren't you?"

"Right." Marc turned and ran through the rain, disappearing in the blink of an eye in the torrent. Jeff turned his verbal attention to the others, "Can she swim?"

Trunks answered, his voice only an agitated fluctuation in the rain. "Yeah, but she's never swum in anything more than five feet deep!"

"Damn," Jeff said this time. "Can any of you swim?" he asked, belatedly remembering that Trunks had never bothered, and Marron hadn't been allowed to, living on an island as she did. Trunks shook his head as Marron did the same. Pan was quaking, however, as Jeff looked at her. He could tell she would be of no use, and told her immediately.

"Never mind, Pan, I can see from your shaking that you can't swim." Pan's only answer was to shake harder. Jeff turned to Trunks again.

"Trunks, take Pan and go with Marron to your car. Get towels or some other thing and get those clothes off of Pan. Make her nice and dry and warm, or else she'll get a serious cold and possibly pneumonia," he ordered. "Do the same with yourselves as soon as you can. Do Pan first. She's shaking too hard for you to worry about you guys right now. Go!"

Trunks nodded and took off, dashing with Marron towing Pan under her jacket. Jeff turned to the sea and stripped off his jacket. He dug out Marc's wetsuit and put it on over his clothes. He knew that Marc wouldn't ever surf in this kind of weather with the storm surges, and knew he shouldn't be either, especially after his own accident. Still, this was Bra's life at stake, and that's all that mattered.

Marc came back toting his surfboard. He looked at Jeff dressed in his wetsuit and met his brother's eyes. He silently handed over the surfboard and said nothing as Jeff headed towards the waves. One thought did repeat itself over and over again in his mind.

Be careful, big bro. Please be careful.

Jeff found that surfing came easily to him, even after two solid years of not doing it. He paddled strongly, searching for Bra's ki. He found that he was too far left to safely make his way over there, so he paddled on past it. He sat on top of the board and waited for the next wave; when it came he turned tail and let it come. It came with a roar, and as he climbed up onto the board, onto his own two feet, it carried him down to where Bra's ki lay.

Jeff bent his knees and kept his head low, helping himself cruise through the crest of the wave as it came tumbling down on him. Jeff immediately latched onto the wave coming after the first one, performing a kind of alley-oop skateboarders usually do, only with a much bigger board.

A year ago, the thought of surfing like this would have made Jeff slightly nauseous. A month ago, the same demi-Saiyan would have just shrugged. The Jeff now was not thinking about it, all he wanted to do was rescue Bra.

Jeff rode the next wave all the way to the exact spot that Bra's ki was in front of. Abandoning the board, Jeff dove straight as an arrow into the waves. However, the Velcro ankleband he'd strapped onto his ankle before surfing prevented the board from floating away entirely. Jeff ignored the board he tugged after him and focused entirely on Bra floating down under him. Swimming towards her, Jeff made a grab for her. He grasped a foot but promptly dropped it a second later. On his second swipe, he managed to get a tight hold on her arm. Turning now for the sky above, Jeff lunged for the surface. He got there in two quick kicks, thanking the Kais he was a Saiyan and not just human.

Casting about for the surfboard, Jeff found it and hauled Bra's unconscious form over it, in the middle. He thrust himself onto it a wave later, his weight almost causing Bra to slip off. Jeff placed a steadying hand on her back, though, and prevented her.

Looking back, Jeff immediately stood over Bra up on the board again as another wave came on. It was a huge swell, too, so it would carry Jeff all the way to the shallows, where Bra would be safe.

Jeff rode the wave as far as he predicted, and then some. He slid off the board a bit earlier than he should have, almost resulting in a wipeout, but Marc splashing forth to meet them saved Jeff from that fate. In an unspoken agreement, Marc lifted Bra off of the board and carried her out of the waters onto the beach and into one of the shelters, out of the rain. Jeff followed behind at a pace no less urgent, even though his part was almost over.

Trunks arrived just in time to see Marc start pounding on Bra's chest; he immediately rushed over. He snatched up Bra's cold hand and held it to his cheek, reaching out with his consciousness and calling his sister's name in her head.

Marc continued to pump away on her chest. Jeff watched silently by, still not thinking about what happened. That was for later. He watched as Trunks called for his sister to come back, and as Marc performed manual CPR without going to mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. Bra was breathing, she just needed to get some water out of her system. Jeff closed his eyes and added his strength to Trunks' in calling for Bra.

:-:-:-:

Trunks didn't know what this new warm feeling was, but he took it and poured it into his sister, still calling for her to come back. Finally she did, murmuring,

Trunks?

Sis! You're coming back!

Trunks, who's that with you? Bra asked sleepily. Trunks could feel that she was indeed coming back, so he took a moment to examine and identify the warm feeling, even as it started to fade.

I think… I think that's Gohan, sis. Gohan was here with me.

Gohan?

Yeah. He's fading though, so…

No! He can't be going already! He has to stay here with us! Bra cried. Trunks jerked away from her, dropping her hand, as she exploded into consciousness. He immediately turned back to see her face as Marc pumped again and Jeff opened his eyes, seemingly in reaction to Trunks' actions.

With Marc's pump, water spluttered out of Bra's mouth and she coughed. Marc stopped pushing and allowed her to sit up, vomiting the rest of the water onto the sand as she did so. Trunks rubbed his sister's back when she straightened up again; she leaned into him for comfort, causing Trunks to wrap his arms around her in a brotherly hug.

The princeling demi-Saiyan turned a rain-streaked face toward the Harrison Brothers. The gratitude in his eyes was all that was needed to convey his thanks; Marc and Jeff simply nodded to him. They turned to go home, Jeff shoving off from his perch on the wall, when a small voice stopped them.

"Thanks, Jeff… Marc," it said, causing them to look back at the speaker, Bra.

"Thanks, you guys… for… saving me. I don't think… I'd have survived… if you hadn't… been here…" she finished, having to take breaths in between her words. _Blessed life_, she thought. _Never so sweet as when coming back from death._ Trunks, hearing this, squeezed his sister harder and buried his face into her water-soaked hair. The Harrison Brothers nodded again, and turned again to go home.

On the way, they picked up Marc's surfboard, with the Velcro snapped off, and the backpack, which had been dropped. They trudged to the van in the rain that was coming down gently now; not as hard as an hour ago. Getting in, Marc fishing the keys out of the dry messenger bag in the back of the van; they settled the surfboard in securely and then threw the wet pack in. Marcput the key into the ignition and waited as Jeff ran around and got into the van. They then started the very silent drive home.

:-:-:-:

Jeff was finally thinking about what he'd done. He'd surfed again. And on a rainy day. It'd felt good, the rain, pounding on his skin, splashing on his hair, making him feel clean. Of course, rain in Japan wasn't exactly clean, he'd have to take a shower after this, but Jeff had felt good from rain for the first time in two years. He'd no longer be grumpy in the rain. It would take a few more rainy days, but starting now, Jeff Gohan Harrison would love the rain, once again.

Now, for the Z-senshi. Jeff, deep down, still cared very much for the Z-senshi. He knew Marc did as well. But that year after the Cell Games had been so very bad, even after all the fighting and saving Earth that they'd done, individually and together. Thefive years afterwards had been a very cool respite, and Jeff didn't even want to go back to living the life he had been living. He didn't think he could. He'd changed too much to be able to fit in that life. Both he _and _Marc had changed. Jeff had changed just now, with his re-found confidence in surfing and a new confidence in himself. He could overcome anything now, even the Z-senshi, with their pleas of redemption. He just needed support, and time to find the right path. And wasn't this the right path, after a year of neglect? Jeff no longer was sure about that. But he did know that he could, and would, in time, eventually forgive the Z-senshi, both for neglecting him and for not standing up for him or Marc when they needed them. That time was not now, and Jeff didn't know when it would be. But it would be, and Jeff would gladly be there when it came.

"You know, Jeff, that was nasty surfing you did back there," Marc commented softly when they were at a red light, breaking into his brother's deeply philosophical thoughts.

"Yeah," Jeff said, his own voice soft. He added, a moment later, "Crap."

Marc had to smile at that one, even as he worried about what that word could be for. Jeff solved this with the sentence,

"Guess I really have no excuse not to go surfing with you now, huh?"

The brothers looked at each other, then looked away, and said, "Nope."

Jeff said again, "Crap," while Marc grinned™ evilly. He returned to negotiating carefully the roads in the rain, grinning all the way home.


	8. Warnings and Conspiracies

Two more months passed in which the Harrison brothers were a little friendlier to the Z-senshi 2nd generation, but not much. Pan was still itching for a fight with Jeff, but hadn't found the time or the opportunity to do so.

Trunks was simply overwhelmed by the amount of essays he had to write, even with his sister helping out. Bra had bounced back quickly from the surfing incident and was even now, in French I, considering dragging Pan to go shopping.

Marron at the moment wasn't speaking to her friend Natalie as they had had a huge fight only the day before. Jeff and Marc were their usual selves, except that Jeff wasn't so depressed on the five rainy days that had shown up to test him. The fifth day had been the cheeriest of them all, as Videl Satan, Jeff's main and only rival at OSH, had gotten pushed out into the rain, thanks to a prank played by the boy's soccer team. That had truly been a sunny day emotionally for Jeff and Marc.

Today, however, was the last day of school before the the Harrison brothers broke for Thanksgiving break, a break of three weekdays and the regular two weekend days, meaning it was Tuesday, and Tuesday was assembly day. And this assembly day was a special assembly day, for Senor Verez was kicking off early this day to take a vacation to Spain, for his birthday celebration. The Student Council was pleased, for it meant that they could now announce what they could not normally with Senor Verez there. Kind of sneaky, they knew, but if Verez knew they were on to him, their whole plan would be ruined. So the conspiracy was on.

As Jeff waited for the senior class president, Vanessa Wilder, to finish making her speech to the people, he took a sly glance around at his peers. The senior Student Council members smirked at him, as did Ren and Tobias, who was supposed to be in the junior section of the auditorium. Jeff narrowed his eyes at the delinquent junior and jabbed his index finger at the row behind him. Tobias just shook his head with a big grin on his face, making Jeff shake his fist at him.

"And now that's said, let's have our announcements. Jeff?" Vanessa looked meaningfully at the innocent-looking Jeff, who waved at her cheekily. The whole auditorium laughed at Jeff's playful insubordination to Vanessa, which had become famous around the whole school. Jeff had made a name for himself doing that same thing to the junior class president last year, and he was just continuing the trend.

Sobering down, Jeff jumped out of his seat and clambered up the stairs to the stage. His face was serious, until a remark from one of the seniors made him blink and glance to the side with a sarcastic look on.

"I'll thank you for your discretion, Miranda. Now if you'll let me start?" Jeff said, his tone matching his face. He startled another laugh out of the student audience, especially from Miranda, who was used to those kinds of comments. Jeff shook his head in mock-exasperation at Miranda before he turned to face the congregation again.

"Now, this is a very serious announcement I have to make. I don't even know why I'm the one making it," he complained suddenly. He was stalling for time as Verez' ki was coming nearer to the auditorium, which was right next to the front entrance of OSH. "I mean, I hate serious announcements. They take the fun out of everything!" Verez' ki was almost to the doors of the entrance.

"Get on with it, already, Jeff!" a voice called from deep within the auditorium.

"I will!" Jeff glared at the offending sophomore. It was likely Brian Hendricks whom had made that comment. Yep, it was Hendricks. Jeff spotted Verez finally heading out the door and raised a hand to wave after him.

"Bye, Mr. Verez! Have a nice vacation!" he called. Verez raised a hand back but didn't turn as he marched right out of the school, oblivious to the events going on right behind his back.

Jeff lowered his hand and muttered to himself, "Finally." His face got serious again as he stuck his hand back into his pocket.

"Now that Verez is gone," he projected, speaking to the whole amphitheater, "I can tell you about him. For those of you that are new and don't pay attention to the rumors, Verez is said to be a sexual harasser. For those of you that are new and do pay attention to the rumors, yes, Verez is a sexual harasser. The Student Council has been aware of Verez' criminal record since he came to this school, as has the faculty, but he hasn't done anything to the knowledge of both Councils. Now, however, there seems to be someone, a girl obviously, who has captured his interest, and Verez seems to be coming back with a vengeance. However," and Jeff had to raise his other hand to still the murmurs of the audience.

"However, the girl has managed to reduce the chances of her getting harassed further, and there is a possibility that Verez will be getting sued for the harassment he's already done. The Student Council _has_ made further plans to take against Verez in case the lawsuit should fail, however. One of these plans is warning you, the public, the males and the females alike, about Verez. Another one is to tell you what to do if you see Verez, or any other person, harassing and/or assaulting someone.

"If you see someone, and by someone I mean a girl, being assaulted, the first thing you can do is call for help. Call 911, the police, whoever. The second thing you can do is to try and get the assaulter away from the victim. If you can't do that, get someone else nearby who can. If there is nobody else with you, grab something to hit the criminal with and go at him. Do NOT just leave the 'victim' (Jeff made quotation marks with his fingers) to suffer. That's a BAD idea. I think you can be charged for aiding and abetting a crime if you do that (1)."

"What do we do once we have the criminal away from the girl?" someone cried. Jeff looked at the person standing defiantly up and identified the ki as Son Pan's. Figures. That girl was all fire and no outlet.

"Once you've gotten the bad guy subdued, as in unconscious, NOT dead (awkward titters were heard at this), try and see if the vic is okay. Don't ask her if 'she's all right.' That's a stupid question. Ask her what hurts, can she move, etc. and, whether or not the girl wants to, take her to a hospital as soon as possible after the police arrive, to check for rape or anything like that. Do not listen to the girl if she says she's fine. She's not. If you have to, haul the girl by her butt if she's so stubborn. It is absolutely critical that you get her to the hospital ASAP, for she could have lasting internal injuries that could cause her to die. And we don't want that, do we?"

Jeff was faced with a giant roomful of shaking heads and "no's in answer to his question. He sighed, relaxing for the first time in, oh, about ten full minutes, and looked out at the audience once more. A junior caught his eye and he frowned again, this time with no-so-mock severity.

"Thank you, Tobias, for moving. Now stay there," Jeff scowled at the runaway under, er, _upper_classman. The auditorium blinked at the sudden change of topic, but easily kept up as Jeff re-addressed them (for what, the fifth time?).

"Friends and fellow students of OSH, and teachers too," Jeff added, seemingly as an afterthought (snickers and scoffs alike were audible), "I present to you the captains of the girl's extraordinary, extraordinary field hockey team." He dramatically swept his arm to the mentioned girls and bowed to them as they got up. Raven just flapped a hand at him while Eliza giggled in response. Jeff, grinning hugely, quickly got off the stage. As he said, he didn't like to be the bearer of bad news, never did. He knew a couple of people who could stand to do this, however, none of them went to OSH anymore. Drat.

The announcements that followed were considerably less grievous in subject, and also took less time. When the assembly ended, the students poured out of the auditorium, chatting amongst themselves about the harassment notice. Bra was particularly shaken by the announcement, as she had nearly forgotten about Verez' liking of her. She couldn't believed she'd ceased to remember the threat that was still present and alive as OSH. Oh, how could she have made that stupid, stupid mistake?! She would have to remind her mother when she got home. She even posted a note to the inside of her locker to remind her to do so.

However, it was a slow day that day, and almost nothing happened. Almost nothing, except for Jeff stopping Bra and asking if she was okay.

"Oh yeah, just a little shaky. I completely forgot about Verez, though. Thanks for reminding me," Bra sighed. Jeff's brows furrowed together in concern for her, making Bra smile quickly to loosen him up.

"Relax, Jeff, I'll be fine. Shopping is on my agenda for today," she joked, earning an eye-roll and a head-shake from Jeff. Bra grinned impishly at the senior and skipped away, leaving Jeff to sigh and wonder what was it about girls and shopping that it even attracted demi-Saiyan girls.

This tiny event of concern brightened up Bra's day considerably, even as Pan's was dampened notably. This was not good.

Pan, currently, was in Mandatory English, and not having fun. Chichi hadn't really concentrated on English as a language, but Pan had studied it enough to have more than a basic grasp of the grammatical system, pronunciation, word usage, etc, which was more than she could say for her peers most of the time. Still, she struggled, and if it weren't for Trunks or Bra's help with it most nights, Pan would have been sunk weeks ago. Marron helped out when she could, but she didn't have any more experience with the language than Pan did.

But now Pan was in a quandary. She had been given Death in the Afternoon by the American writer Ernest Hemingway, and had been assigned to read it and then write a book report on it, chapter by chapter. But how was she supposed to do that if she couldn't even read the book? She knew what it was about, but that was from reading the back of it. but who cared about some lonely and depressed bullfighter whose friends and girlfriends abandoned him after he got gored by a bull? No one, that's who, duh. Still, the paper was due in two weeks, and Pan had a lot of work to do.

Pan sighed with relief as the bell rang and the teach dismissed tem. Good thing she had a free period next. Bad thing that she didn't have it with any of the Z-senshi people. But hey, maybe she could get one of the other upperclassmen to help her. Yes, this was a good idea.

Pan's idea was so good she ended up asking Bobby the junior to help her. He cheerfully agreed, even as Lindsay teased him about getting more girls as friends than he needed. Bobby just grinned laughingly at her as Ivory simply gazed at them with emotionless green eyes. Ivory was an indifferent girl, much like 18 was, and always made Pan feel kind of lower than she was. But Pan had seen the true side of Ivory over the past two months, and knew that was not the case. Under the pale skin, the dark red hair, and the freckles, Ivory was an avid surfer, a tough girl, and a softie, all rolled into one. Kind of like 18, only the android didn't surf.

After ten minutes, of only six minutes were spent talking Hemingway, Pan looked around, frowning. Ivory noticed, but Lindsay beat her to asking Pan the question.

"What's wrong, Pan? Still don't understand Death in the Afternoon?" she asked. Bobby glanced over at her from the game of tic-tac-toe he was currently losing to Lindsay to hear her answer. He didn't notice Lindsay keeping an eye on the piece of paper they had laid out before them, which incidentally was the rough draft of a certain demi-Saiyan's essay for a certain M. English class.

Pan made a face. "Oh, you know I still don't understand it," said the adopted Son. "I'm just wondering where Marc is. He usually has free period with you guys, doesn't he?"

Ivory answered as Lindsay grabbed the table to deflect Bobby's attempt to "turn the tables" of the tic-tac-toe game.

"Marc's helping the Drama Club neaten up the stage in the Auditorium before he takes his Thanksgiving Break. Knowing Marc, he'll get done ultra-early and be coming around that corner any minute now." She pointed to the farthest corner of the Junior Common Room (in which Pan wasn't supposed to be according to the unwritten laws of OSH, but oh well), where, amazingly, the spiky-haired junior appeared only seconds later. Pan turned to gape at Ivory, but she just waggled her eyebrows nonchalantly and turned to put an end to Lindsay and Bobby's quarrel.

"Hey guys. What's up?" Marc's voice asked as he came up to them. Lindsay and Bobby immediately sat up straight and said "Nothing!" simultaneously. Marc cocked a suspicious eyebrow at them and turned to Pan and Ivory.

"What'd they do?"

Pan told him. "They were playing tic-tac-toe on your rough English essay. In ink." Ivory nodded in agreement with Pan's concise, junior-dooming, and beautifully eloquent statement. Marc, his face retaining its cheery smile, turned to Lindsay and Bobby again, or rather Lindsay alone, as Bobby had gone under the table in an attempt to hide from Marc's wrath. Lindsay was not so much better off, as she looked like she was only up there still and not under the table with Bobby because of dignity. But as Marc looked at her, she abandoned even that and crawled under the table with Bobby. Marc just kept smiling, but Ivory started clearing the table of everything on its surface. Pan leaned back in her seat, drawing up her knees to get them out of the way of either Bobby or Lindsay as they moved around.

As soon as Ivory had Marc's essay in hand, Marc went ballistic. Pan's eyes jumped wide as Marc suddenly overturned the table and pounced on the two cringing miscreants recently uncovered.

"How could you do this to me?!?! I worked hard on that essay! Do you know how hard it is to write three whole pages completely in English? Correctly?! I hate you!!" Marc howled as he grabbed his two (ex-) best friends.

"But Marc," Bobby protested weakly, "It's a rough draft, not the final."

"Does it matter?!?!" Marc screamed. "You have defiled a major achievement in the history of the Japanese people, and in accordance with the ancient unwritten emperor's code of this site of education, I sentence you to the silent treatment for seven days!!" Marc went on after Lindsay put in that the tic-tac-toe game was on the back of the essay, not on the work itself. Pan watched with something akin to shock as she watched Marc vent his spleen. She looked at Ivory, whom was clearly amused, and asked,

"Does Marc always overreact when it comes to homework?"

Ivory nodded, her grin still in place. "Yeah. It has something to d with the lifestyle he had before he was adopted," she replied.

Pan didn't realize what she heard at first, but when she did, it was like a bomb exploding in front of her face, she was so shocked.

"Marc is adopted?!?!" she shrieked, effectively breaking through Marc's "red-eyed" wrath cycle. He glanced up at her, not letting go of the ruffians in his grip, a look of wonder on his face.

"Yeah, I'm adopted. Didn't you know that?" he asked her curiously.

Pan, by now, was in serious shock. She had never known that Marc was anybody other than Marc, or even thought that he was anybody other than Marc. Sure, there had been the comparisons between him and who could have been her brother Goten, but she had never really lent any credence to them. Now there was a serious possibility that Marc was Goten, and that Jeff was Gohan. Pan didn't know what to feel. Happiness, relief? Or resentment and jealousy? How about just plain shock?

A hand blurred in front of her vision, making Pan snap out of her reverie.

"Ah, wha—? Oh, brain fade. Yeah, sorry," Pan apologized to the confused-looking Marc. He still held Lindsay and Bobby by the scruffs of their collars, showing a single mindedness that was extraordinary in non-ki-wielding humans. But Pan didn't see it that way anymore. After months of denying and denying that Marc and Jeff were possibly Goten and Gohan, she finally shed the veil of disbelief over her brain and saw them for what they were.

"Are you sure you're okay?" Marc asked, easily holding the hooligan duo one-handed as if there were just paper, despite their strains to get away from him.

"Yeah, I'm fine," Pan assured him, flashing him a grin. Marc raised his eyebrows but gave it up with a shrug. He returned to Bobby and Lindsay and pinned their feeble attempts to escape with a black glare. They stopped instantly and stayed silent as Marc regarded them impassively.

"Hey, Ivory. What should we do with them?" Marc gestured to the humans on the ground. They turned pleading eyes onto Ivory, hoping that their friend would be merciful to them. The redhead eyed them for a moment, then looked to Marc.

She said, "Well, seeing as the table obviously does not want to be used," she pointed to the overturned table, which did look piteous, "why don't we use these two as our table?"

The horrified looks on the two's faces made Pan burst out into laughter. Marc grinned evilly, but said in a conversationally dramatic tone,

"Why Ivory, that's a sound idea. I never could have thought of that myself. Thank you, my dear." He bowed his head to a smiling Ivory, then fixed a stern eye upon the troublemakers. Lindsay and Bobby grumbled, but nonetheless scrambled quickly to all fours. Pan, giggling helplessly, gingerly put her English binder on Bobby's back. She also carefully laid Death in the Afternoon on the same appendage.

"Thank you for being so considerate, Lady Pan. I believe I'll actually get through my 50's without back pain because of your concern," Bobby said. Pan looked at Bobby's brown-haired head to see that it was twisted around to look at her. A blue eye winked at her, making the Son human giggle again.

A dry voice from their left said, "Stop flirting, Bobby, and get back to being a table, _now_."

Bobby winked again and turned his head, saying in a soldier's voice, "Yes, sir, General Marc, sir!"

Pan laughed outright again.

"Finally, Private Bobby! And Private Lindsay, stop moving around!" Marc barked. Ivory was chuckling now as Lindsay roared back,

"Yes, sir, General Marc, sir!" She stopped moving as commanded, causing Marc to remark,

"Good. Now that these privates are settled, Captain Ivory, do you have any White Out?"

:-:-:-:

Jeff was angry. As in angry. He'd been roughing around with Ren and Videl had appeared. She'd taunted him and then tried to get him to fight her, she being the daughter of Hercule Satan. Naturally, Jeff had refused, as he had ever since eighth grade. He'd nullified her taunts with admissions to them, whether or not they were true, and kept himself from blowing up by keeping it cool. But this was the last straw.

Videl had jumped in between Jeff and Ren as they had returned to their impromptu game of football (which was played not with a real football but instead the Nerf™ football, which was just weird). She'd caught the football and run off with it, causing Jeff to just lose it.

"Dammit, Satan! Stop being so damn stupid and just leave us alone already!" Jeff yelled.

Videl just stopped and yelled back, "Then fight me already, Harrison!"

Jeff's black eyes flashed with anger and a rumble started deep in his throat. Ren backed away from his friend, slowly, as if Jeff's wrath would be centered on him if he beat a hasty retreat. He needn't have worried, for Jeff was all on Videl.

"Why do you always want to fight me, Satan? You've been persecuting me about that since eighth grade, all for a silly spar! Why do you want to fight me so badly, anyway?" Jeff asked, his voice considerably calmer but no less heated in tone.

Videl turned and looked at the angry Jeff, then marched up and jabbed her fellow senior in the chest with one finger.

"Because I want to know how strong you are! You're a martial artist, but I don't know how strong you are or what style you fight, because you are the only one who hasn't fought me. You and Marc. I don't get that. You don't even like my dad, and _everyone _likes my dad," Videl declared, her finger still on Jeff's chest.

Jeff's face wrinkled in disgust. "You know, Videl, life isn't always about fighting, who's stronger than who, which style is used, so on. It also isn't about you and your dad. Like it or not, I'm never going to fight you. Neither is Marc. So just get your head out of your butt and leave me the HFIL alone."

He plucked the Nerf™ football out of Videl's hands and stomped away, his anger causing mini-depressions in the ground that would cause headaches for the faculty later. Ren followed him, keeping far enough back that Jeff was considerably ahead of him so as not to attract the anger of the mightiest lacrosse player Orange Star High had ever seen, and would never see again.

Videl was left staring after them with a shocked look on her face. Harrison had never called her Videl before, not even during eighth grade together. She curled her fingers into a tight fist. She was going to get a fight with Harrison, no matter what. Even if it meant annoying him to the edge of insanity.

Well, maybe not _that_ far, Videl said to herself. But definitely before the end of the year. Before college… and before her dream to step out beyond her father's shadow was realized at last.

Videl shook her head and trudged off in the opposite direction from where Harrison and his wimpy-looking friend Ren Guyana went. She had no knowledge of the fact that there were two intruders nearby. A glimpse of shiny spiky hair and glittering black eyes offered the only clue to the intruders' identities, and certainly that is not enough to tell who it is through the ominous shadow of doom that has just been cast over a certain battling belle.

:-:-:-:

Pan had a lot to think about. Videl wanted to fight Jeff, but had never been able to? This was very interesting. Between finding out that Marc was adopted and Jeff didn't want to fight the daughter of the famous fraud Hercule Satan, whom Pan hated with all of her might, Pan had a lot of brain food to eat. She decided to try and get Jeff to fight before Videl did, or fight Videl before she nabbed a chance to fight with Jeff. For Marc, she concluded that a little background research was due to be done, and since research was better than Death in the Afternoon any day, there would be a lot of that happening. She just hoped that Jeff wouldn't mind the spar, and that Marc wouldn't mind the background check.

:-:-:-:

Marc was in a bad mood. It wasn't a lasting effect from the tic-tac-toe game, that had faded a long time ago. No, it was the surge of anger that had come through his mind link with his brother, and the discovery that that Satan girl had been bugging Jeff again. He swore, that girl was so annoying, it was a wonder that _anyone_ could live with her. She had just so much arrogance about her father beating Cell, it was HFIL just listening to her voice. Even when she wasn't taking advantage of her father being _the_ Hercule Satan, the arrogance coated her voice and made it oily, reminding Marc much of Cell himself. How ironic.

As Marc waited for Jeff at the end of the school day, he resolved to do something about that nuisance of a Satan. It was hard enough having to deal with the Z-senshi, but the "Devil," as they called her not so affectionately, was just adding to the troubles. Marc shook his head as he thought about the pest that was Videl Satan, Judo Black Belt. Sure, that girl was stronger, stronger than her father (which really wasn't that much of a feat, mind you), but did she have to be so overbearing about it? Marc was stronger than Videl, but he didn't carry on like she did. 'Course, the whole world didn't know that he was a strong person, but the thought of Videl made his lip curl.

The demi-Saiyan sighed. Now was not the time to be thinking about how to get rid of Videl. Throttling her with his bare hands would be nice, though. A smile flitted across his face at the thought. Time for some pranks, the likes that had never before been seen. Trunks would be suspicious, as most of the pranks were derived from his own store, but Marc could not resist such an opportunity to show Videl what the Harrison brothers were all about.

Now just to wrangle Jeff on into the act.


	9. Revenge is Sweet, not Bitter

Jeff had protested against playing a prank on Videl ferociously, but when he had seen the blueprints of the prank, his defense had fallen immediately, to be replaced by a fierce offense. It was funny how Marc knew all of Jeff's buttons but only slightly hesitated to push them. Perhaps it was because Jeff could punish him easily in their regular spar every morning. Marc had won this morning, but only because he'd had a bit of luck and the wit to take advantage of that luck. But oh well. He and Jeff were about even in strength, the both of them having attained the ability to go beyond SS1 in the HTC with Goku. Jeff had accessed the power first, but Marc hadn't been far behind, only fifteen minutes later.

Marc's ascension had truly been the deciding factor in the Cell Games, and with Marc taking his turn to beat Cell up, Jeff had prepared a humongous Super Kamehameha Wave. When Cell had deflected and thrown Marc away from him, he had been met by Jeff's Super Kamehameha and been blasted away completely. Marc had quickly joined in with a regular Kamehameha himself and had added to Cell's demise, thus saving the world in an unprecedented double effort.

But then, after that, their world had crashed down around their ears.

* * *

For the first day of Thanksgiving break, time was spent in shopping for Thanksgiving supplies, most of all the turkeys. The brothers' mouths watered at the thought of all that food ready to be eaten, especially with the two turkeys they were getting. The stuffing, made by Linda, was stupendous, and the rice Jack created was heavenly. Myna was the best at the turkeys, while Marc was marvelous with the green bean casserole and the sweet potatoes. Jeff topped the whole feast off with his specialty of corn and the all-important gravy. The cranberry sauce was alternated between the Harrisons each year and this year it was Myna's turn.

The Thanksgiving day itself was one of the best yet for the Harrisons. Although the holiday wasn't celebrated in Japan, the Harrisons were an American family. They had moved to Japan about three years before Jeff and Marc had showed up, so they had been versed well enough in the language and the customs of the Japanese when the two newest and youngest members stepped into their lives. However, the Harrisons still held true to their American heritage by holding celebrations of the holidays, including Christmas.

The school of OSH was very understanding of this concept, and therefore had granted weeks off for the Harrison brothers on the holidays, provided that they did the homework that was assigned them for each day that they missed. This was no problem for Jeff and Marc; they even turned the assignment in early. But as for the rest of the school, life dragged on until the next Japanese holiday.

After the Thanksgiving feast, in which Marc and Jeff had one whole turkey to themselves, and more than one or two helpings of everything, especially Linda's stuffing, which was considered the best of all foods beside the turkey at Thanksgiving, everyone was feeling sleepy and content. Jeff and Marc were half-heartedly playing cards, Myna was reading her latest book, Jack had an arm around Myna but was not really awake, and Linda was typing away busily on her computer for college. Life was slow, great, and untroubled by the problems it would face on Monday.

Until a familiar voice called out, "Hello! Anybody here?" Barking was heard as accompaniment as all heads swiveled around to the door. Linda jumped up from her computer to go open the door, with Jeff in hot pursuit. Marc hung back, but not from unhappiness at the visitor. He was bracing himself for the animal the visitor usually showed up with.

Sure enough, a large and sleek black-and-tan dog bounded into the kitchen. She found Marc and leapt upon him, licking his face wildly as her docked tail wagged happily. Marc spluttered helplessly as he tried gently to get the dog to get off of him. His efforts were in vain, for the dog would not move until she had finished greeting him, a process that could take up to four complete minutes to do.

Exclamations were heard from the direction of the door, especially from Linda, whom knew the visitor very well. Jeff was fond of the person too, as was Marc, even with the annoying dog always coming with wherever her human went. Marc finally got the dog to stop licking him as Jeff, Linda, and a girl who was Linda's age came in, the girl's and Linda's arms wrapped around each other's shoulders, as if they were best friends.

Which they were. Linda had not seen her childhood friend Sheridan McCaffey for many months, but they had kept in close touch, and were still as best friends as ever. They occasionally called, but mostly they wrote emails to each other or actual letters, the former more frequently than the latter. Yet they still knew almost everything about each other's lives, even the fact that Sheridan's cousin had killed himself, a fact that Sheridan didn't like to share.

Sheridan's dog, Catty, was a Doberman, and she was the dog that was licking Marc in the picture that Jeff had on his locker. She went everywhere with Sheridan, even to the college campus her human currently lived on. Catty loved everyone, even strangers and would not harm them, unless of course they were hurting her human. However, she loved Marc especially, and would actually abandon Sheridan's side if Marc was around. Catty always returned, but she definitely was more willing to leave her human than she normally was. For Catty that was saying something.

Sheridan herself was a beauty. She had the normal black hair, angular face, and black eyes that was the standard of all Japanese people, but there was such a liveliness about her that made her seem larger than life and set her apart from others. She loved to take risks and would do almost anything if it appealed to her. She also fought for what she believed in, and she believed in a lot, so she always had something to rant about. It was a famous trait of hers, and Jeff was always teasing her about that.

But now was not the time for such introductions. It turned out that Sheridan's semester at her college had just ended, and she had a two-week break before the next one. She had already visited her family, but had wanted to visit some other people as well, so here she was. She also commented, while looking at Marc,

"Catty's been pining for you, Marc, so I had to bring her over here to stop her moping." Sheridan flashed a grin to Marc's scowl, even though he was scratching said dog behind her shoulder blades with exactly the degree of pressure and in exactly the very spot that Catty loved. As a result, Catty was leaning heavily into his hand, her head almost touching the ground as she did. Marc was used to this, though, and continued to scratch without any problems.

"Just look at you two. Almost makes me think that she'd be better off with you," Sheridan smirked. Marc just rolled his eyes and shook his head, but grinned a welcome to her as she came over to hug him. Catty tried to get in between the two of them as they did so, but as Marc had stood up, she only managed to get in between their legs. Still, the two laughed and Jeff and Linda came over to greet Catty on their own.

Myna was petting the Doberman when Marc had a brilliant idea. Jeff, sensing by the surges of inspiration coming over the mental link they had, turned to his brother with a questioning face. Marc noticed and, grinning, told his brother mentally what he had just planned. Jeff glared at him meaningfully, but made no sound, no motion, and no move to stop Marc from the evil deed he had planned.

"Hey Sheridan. Jeff and I need your help. Mom and Dad are at work during the day, and Linda's still at school," Linda moaned enviously at the reminder, "so we can't involve them. So how would you like to play a prank on one of the OSH seniors with us?" Marc asked, a mischievous glint in his black eyes.

Heads shot around to look at Marc, whom retained an innocent look despite all the glares. Jeff merely had a small smile on his face, which somehow managed to convey that Marc was the mastermind of the operation. Myna and Jack weren't too happy about the prospect of yet another prank, while Linda was interested in what trouble her little brothers were up to now. Sheridan herself had an evil grin on her face that eerily matched Marc's down to the last degree.

Yes, Marc, Jeff, Linda, and Sheridan had been quite the troublemakers at OSH. They had somehow managed to keep their GPAs up above a 3.5 (in M &amp; J's case, at 4.0), and also to not get caught at the pranks. Things had not calmed down at all when the class of 2003 departed, as Marc had taken it upon himself to keep up the action with Lindsay, Ivory, and Bobby. Jeff joined in less frequently than in junior year, but only because he so many things to do. His pranking spirit was not diminished at all just because he was a senior. The only reason he'd protested against pranking Videl was because it would seem like he was letting her to get to him, which she so totally was not. But still, this prank was too sweet to pass up, even if it was a Capsule original, stolen patent pending.

Myna and Jack had tried to curb the pranking syndrome, but the kids just ignored them. They braved the punishments for the fun, even though it wasn't as fun being grounded, no computer or phone privileges for a month. That was why they brought cameras. The pics both entertained and passed the time, as did the memories and plans for another prank.

The parents showed unhappy faces, but only sighed at their sons. Life sure was livelier with Marc and Jeff around. Linda had been energetic, but compared to the vitality of the Almost-Twins, as they had been appropriately dubbed, she was an old rabbit. So Linda, Jeff, and Marc both brightened up their lives and made it a parent's third-worst nightmare, as they did listen otherwise. How sweet.

"Yeah? What's the prank?" Sheridan asked. Marc cast a sly look at his resigned parents, whom suddenly were paying the Doberman Catty a lot of attention, and then proceeded to tell Sheridan of the latest appearance of Like &amp; Unlike Pranksters, Incorporated.

"Oh, count me in, boyo. I so need to be there for that," the girl declared upon hearing the deed in its entirety. Linda was grinning too, impressed by the scope of the plan and the foolproof way to make sure the pranksters remained anonymous. Sheridan put her hand out with her palm down. Marc placed his own hand on top of it, followed by Linda and topped by Jeff.

"Ready to come back with style, pranksters?" Sheridan asked. She received affirmatives and replied, "Then let's rumble! Like &amp; Unlike Pranksters Inc is back in business!"

* * *

There was quite a mixed response from the OSH campus when Sheridan Kaye McCaffey arrived on Monday for the first time in six months. The seniors were mostly glad to see her; only Charlotte, Alice, and their little band of airheads were not. The juniors were also joyous in their greeting of the six-month-year-old alumna. Most of the sophomores were wary of Sheridan, but a few were friends of hers. The freshmen were all curious about her, but most of them ignored her.

The faculty were a different matter. It was an even split between all the teachers on whom liked her and who dreaded her. Verez belonged to the second camp, a fact that Sheridan both liked and sometimes hated. Mrs. Robbington, the secretary, had only praises for Sheridan, every one of which made the alumna blush. Sure, the alumna had not been the 2003 Class Valedictorian, but no one had liked the real one anyway.

However, none of the people, least of all Videl, even suspected that Sheridan was there for any other reason that to visit. She was known to be mischievous, yes, but she hadn't planned this visit in advance, so they were all right. Right? Right.

So it was quite the surprise to Videl when she walked up to her locker and found a note on it. it was from Sheridan and said:

__

Hey, Videl!

Heard about your latest attempt to get Jeff to fight ya. I know some buttons you can push that will get Jeff to fight you, 100 guaranteed. Meet me in the center courtyard during lunch and I'll teach 'em to ya! Sound good?

See ya at 1:15!

Sheridan K. McCaffey

Videl stared at the note. Sheridan, talk to her? She wouldn't even look at her during their time at OSH together, except for when Videl was laving to sort things out with the police or if she'd arrived late. That was it. So what was it now?

It suddenly occurred to Videl that she didn't care. She wanted to know what made Harrison tick, and this was the perfect opportunity to find out. It was doom time for one Jeff G. Harrison.

Wait, what was Harrison's middle name?

* * *

At 1:10, Videl was waiting in the center courtyard. She knew she was seven minutes early, but who cared when this was one of the greatest opportunities Videl would get to learn about her archrival? "Know thine enemy," had said, and Videl was doing just that.

Darn it, where was that dratted Sheridan? The graduate was not known for being late, and yet it was… 1:12. Oh. OK. That gave Sheridan K. McCaffey three minutes to get here. If only Videl could wait that long.

It was 1:14 when Videl decided to take a walk around the courtyard. This turned out to be a bad mistake, for when Videl passed a juniper tree, she was suddenly doused with something slimy and cold. A wet stream followed, making Videl sputter and hold out her hands to defend herself. She stepped backwards and stepped right on something circular that clamped onto her foot and wouldn't let go. Videl looked down and saw it was a bucket, and it was stuck to the bottom of her foot. She took a look further and discovered that not only was she wet, she had a gooey gum-like substance all over her. It was green and _very_ familiar…

She'd been slimed! And hosed to boot! With a bucket stuck to her foot! Was there anything that could add to this torture?!

Apparently yes. White and grey leaf-shaped things fluttered down on top of her, making Videl cover her sopping-wet hair in another futilely defensive move. It was nothing less than a few feathers, yet…

Oh, great! She was slimed, hosed, had a bucket stuck to her foot, _and_ had FEATHERS stuck to her on top of the slime!! Great!! This constituted a trip home, a nice warm bath, and a nice punching bag punishment. Now to see if she could be invisible while getting to her locker for her keys.

She sidled up to the door, checked to see the coast was clear, and dashed across the hall when it was. She made it to one hall without being seen, but the second time she was entirely unlucky. Four freshmen looked up at her, shocked, then one of them hooted, causing the others to Point and Laugh™ in a classic gesture. Videl gritted her teeth and dashed across another hallway, flashing by countless classrooms on her way to her locker. If only she could get there before class started!

Unfortunately, she was unlucky again. The great bell rang and students poured out everywhere. They all stopped, however, upon seeing the great monster covered with slime, feathers, had wet hair, and had a bucket stuck on its foot. Some of them recognized the person underneath it all and yelled,

"Hey, it's Videl! She's been pranked!"

Laughter roared out from the mouths of her fellow classmates. It followed Videl down the hall as she ran to her locker, only to find it locked. She had her head down, so she didn't notice the typed note on it. When she finally did raise her head, her eyes widened in fury and her jaw set. Harrison was going to get his lights punched out for this!

Videl jammed on her locker, forcing it open, and fumbled around for her jet capsule and her keys. She was so angry she kept missing them, but finally she jerked them out and slammed the locker door again. She stalked off, her jaw set and a murderous glint in her eye that told the laughing students to shut up or _else_. They did, but with smiles still on their faces. It wasn't every day that the daughter of Hercule Satan, the pride of Satan City, was pranked. In fact, this was only the third time. The other two had been just as spectacular.

Several students, noticing the note on Videl's locker, approached it. Their eyes, like Videl's, grew wide, but not in anger. They had to slap their hands over their mouths to keep from laughing, as it said:

_Videl Satan, you have been chosen as this month's prank victim. Smile, as you are on_ Prankster's Camera! _Your prank is: being slimed, being hosed, feathers on the top, and a bucket on the bottom! Have a nice day being pranked!_

_Thank you for your patronage,_

****

_Like &amp; Unlike Pranksters Inc._

_P.S. The slime used in your prank is **UltraSlimed Slime™**, with an ultra sticky hold that lasts over forty-eight hours! No amount of scrubbing, scratching, brushing, peeling, or soaking will make this ultra tough slime come off! The only way to get the slime off, is to wait it out for a period of 2-3 days! Watch for shedding! Enjoy!_

_The People at **Like &amp; Unlike Pranksters Inc.**_

_(**UltraSlimed Slime™** made only at Capsule Corps.)_

There was merriment abound that day, and for the four days after that day, as the image of Videl Satan covered in slime, doused by a hose, and with feathers stuck to the slime (and a bucket too), kept them laughing whenever they thought about it. But no one was smiling wider than Marc, the mastermind behind the whole operation, as he drove to the pharmacy to develop the pictures in his digital camera. Some of them were of a vacation to Germany the Harrisons had taken that summer. Most of the pictures were of a girl being slimed and hosed by Sheridan, and being dumped on with feathers by Jeff, and of the same girl, now a hideous-looking monster, running through the halls to her locker.

* * *

Marc grinned evilly. This was the best prank they'd played yet. Too bad Linda hadn't been there. Being slimed _and_ hosed at the same time would have been best. Alas, but Sheridan couldn't do two things at once, and the reaction by Videl was priceless. These pictures were definitely going up on their Board of Pranks.

Meanwhile, a certain purple-haired demi-Saiyan was confused…


	10. Caught in the Act

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Swearing in a foreign language; sexual harassment

Bra was chipper that evening. Bra usually was perky, but this evening she was bouncing off the walls. Verez had been sued!

Yes, the lawsuit against Verez had been quite successful, especially with Capsule Corporations' reputation as the biggest supplier of technological inventions designed to make your life easier. Verez hadn't stood a chance, even with at least three women on the civil suit squad eyeing him unashamedly. Of course, once the contents of the suit were folded out, the gawkers were reduced to one woman, and she would not have been chosen by Verez on first glance anyway.

However, once Verez had gotten up to testify for himself, he confessed that he'd thought she'd been pretty, but had only begun to be diabolical when he'd heard Bra's name. More specifically, Bra's last name. That was when the real trouble started.

Verez was prevented from going any further in his testimony, but it was quite clear that the Spaniard would not have paid anything more than a passing glance at bra if she had not been a member of the Briefs family, as in the Briefs family. There weren't a lot of Briefs families out there, but there was always the possibility of a person stealing the Briefs last name just for a bit of the spotlight. Of course, the person had to deal with the Japanese government for fraud and with the Briefs, paying a hefty fine to the Briefs and spending up to five months in a jailhouse institute in accordance with the laws of the Japanese government (1).

But Bra had brushed off the hint that she would have been happier if she had not been born a Brief. She'd always done so. She saw no pointing in wishing she were someone else when she had the life; she was perfectly content being rich. She didn't envy those who wished they were in her place, however. She more pitied them. Just look at her family. It was made up of a vain genius, a bloodthirsty alien, a lively yet hapless half-alien, and another half-alien who was shopping-crazy, not counting the bubbly airhead grandma and the cat-loving grandpa. No, most humans wouldn't be able to take that kind of family.

But we double digress. Back to the first digression. Verez had been fined an expensive 1,500,000 yen and had a restraining order in effect against him to keep him at least six feet away from Bra. This was enough to satisfy both Bulma and Vegeta, and Trunks as well (although both of the males had had a red glint in their stone-cold eyes as they stared at Verez throughout the whole proceedings) for a first warning. But if Verez violated the restraining order or did something worse, the Briefs were going to take more severe legal action, maybe even more severe physical action. It depended on what Verez did. There would be no second chance for the admittedly-hot Spanish teacher.

All in all, it'd been a good day. Even with the image of a furious Verez standing up to protest the restraining order, Bra was happy. She actually was happier because of the memory, although a red flag should have been going up. Why should Verez be protesting a restraining order considering the nature of the lawsuit? Nevertheless, Bra needed this victory, and by golly, she was going to enjoy it.

Trunks wasn't so appreciative, and neither was Vegeta, although the elder Saiyan prince had the sense to vent his anger out on his gravity dome. The G-dome was currently undergoing repairs, repairs administered by Dome Drones invented specifically for that purpose, whereas Vegeta was still stomping around, his anger levels almost back to normal, if not for the aforementioned fact that his G-dome was broke. But Trunks was moody for a far different reason.

He'd failed to seize the opportunity to show that darned teacher exactly what he thought of him. He'd seen the way that, even then, Verez had stared at Bra as if she were a prize to be gotten, and he didn't have it. He'd also seen the way Verez's gaze had flickered over to his mother on more than a few occasions, and his blood had boiled so much that Trunks hadn't even been able to hear the voices of his mother as she'd argued with Verez. Only a self-control of tremendous size had kept Trunks from outright attacking the teacher. But his wrath was such that even the legal victory couldn't cheer him up. Only a good beating of a certain ugly maniac would make him happy enough to bring him out of the brooding pit of rage he'd fallen into.

Trunks' mind, out of habit, started plotting all of the evil things he _could_ do to Verez. This pastime kept him busy as a bee for a few happier minutes, before the demi-Saiyan realized that he a tremendous amount of homework to do for tomorrow. Trunks groaned and banged his head on the stainless steel table he was currently sitting at. The table made a loud noise of complaint at this action, but Trunks just banged his head on the appliance a second, third, fourth, and a fifth times, before he finally got up. He left behind a badly injured stainless steel table with five huge dents in it where a certain hardheaded boy had given in to despair. The table would never be the same again, ever.

Still, anger still followed Trunks around, and it would only take one wrong step to set free the demon ranting within the younger prince.

He could even be described as the very image of the Grim Reaper himself for the next few days.

* * *

Verez was furious. Not just mad, angry. He was as mad as a bull, and having Verez that wrathful was never a good thing. But in this case, it was an especially bad thing, as the object of his anger was a certain bluenette and her family, but especially the bluenette. He hadn't thought that she would tell her family about him; nor would he have thought that a certain _Senorita_ Bra Briefs would have minded his attentions. But apparently she had to both of them, enough to feel her privacy was being violated, or such was the definition of harassment.

_¡Maldita sea! _She'd been pretty, yes, but Verez had only wanted to use her to get closer to Bulma Briefs, whom was the real prize. Not only was Bulma Briefs beautiful, but she was also loaded with _mucho dinero contante_ (much money), something that Verez was in sore need of right now. Even without the lawsuit demanding him to pay 450 yen, Verez needed money bad. However, he did have enough _dinero_ (money) to pay off the suit, but he'd have to go without electricity in his apartment for at leasttwo months.

But that was not the sole driving force behind Verez' anger. The sole driving force of the Spanish teacher's anger was instead the way the family had appeared in court. The Briefs had been so strong, so, so, so… _smug_, that Verez' hackles had risen straight up in the air at first sight of the whole congregation. Not only had the Briefs been smug, though, they had been more than a little intimidating, especially the short male and _Senor_ Trunks Briefs, the brother. Verez had seen him in the halls of OSH, but had never directly come face-to-face with him until the lawsuit. Now that he had, Verez had found that _Senor_ Trunks could be scary when he wanted to. But Trunks couldn't even begin to compare with the glare that the short man had been giving him throughout the whole court case.

Verez had refused to let the Briefs scare him, though. However, he had still lost the case, and the 450 yen, while extremely expensive, was just slightly above irrational, but the six-foot restraining order was unreasonable! All he'd done was _look_ at her; he hadn't even made any passes at her or anything like that. He hadn't been able to, as she'd transferred out of his class almost right away.

Hmm…was that the reason that she'd dropped his class? Because he was staring at her? Verez had not been told the reason why _Senorita_ Briefs had changed her mind, only that she was now in French I. He was sure they wouldn't have told him if they had thought that he _was_ harassing her, therefore protecting her. Verez felt indignant at the lack of trust the OSH staff had in him. He'd changed from what he was before. He no longer had any interest in high school girls thanks to being beaten about the head by his elderly grandmother and his sister for being such a pervert. No, it was only his dreams of a higher life that had doomed him this time.

Even so, the short man had looked as much a part of the family as _Senora_ Briefs or _Senor_ Trunks and _Senorita_ Bra had been. Was he _Senorita_ Bra's _padre_ (father)? If so, then Verez' plans had been doomed from the start.

_¡Maldita sea!_ He was still angry at _Senorita_ Bra. He couldn't believe that the restraining order for six feet had been granted! The next time he saw her, he was going to have to do some major self-control in order not to take out his anger at losing 450 yen and the greatest chance in his lifetime to finally be rich.

_¡Hijo de una zorra!_ There would be no living with himself after this. He would just look at _Senorita _Bra and hate her for thwarting his master plan to get rich not-so-quick, and therefore keeping him from living the life, as she did. Verez was not one to forget an injustice done to him so easily; he was known back home as holding grudges for as long as ten years. Woe would come _a una_ (to one) Bra Briefs, and the woe would be delivered _por_ _un_ (by one) Istavo Verez. He swore it on his very life _y por Dios en los cielos_ (by God in heaven).

Better watch yourself, _Senorita_ Bra. Istavo Verez will take revenge upon you one day, when you least expect it.

* * *

The day after the lawsuit, which was a Thursday, was a long one. Bra was still cheerful, especially as she had seen nothing of Señor Verez. She was happy in her little bubble of ignorance of Verez' plans, gliding sky high on cloud nine. Her friends around her could only be happy themselves, for Bra Briefs' energy was infectious that Thursday. Even Pan, who was in a dark mood, and Trunks, in an even darker state of mind, were more mild-mannered than usual.

It is known why Trunks was mad, for he'd woken up no better than yesterday in terms of mood. Pan, on the other hand, was upset because she had not been able to approach the eldest Harrison brother with her intention of a spar with him. She had been counting on getting a spar with him sometime this week, earlier than this, certainly, but had not been able to because she had not been able to catch him alone to talk to him. She had, however, already started the background check on the both of them, but had found out very little. She had only been able to confirm that Jeff and Marc were true biological brothers, and both had only a "G." indicated for their middle names. Pan didn't know what those middle names were, but she had a serious hunch. That hunch, to this day, was still unconfirmed.

How could she catch Jeff alone to convince him to spar with her? Jeff's friends were always with him or in sight of him, so getting him alone was going to require drastic maneuvers. But what? She was supremely frustrated now. Not even finally finishing her dratted paper for English was able to cheer her up.

Oh, yes. She had finally finished her English paper. Her mother had shown a great aptitude for it, despite the fact that Pan had only glossed over it in her home studies. It was a wonder that pan didn't have more of a grip on the English language that she did if Chichi knew so much. Still, what was done was done, and there was nothing Pan could do about it.

Pan shook her head to clear it as she headed out of her last class of the day, History. While she did so, she caught a glimpse of black spiky hair and turned to look. It was Jeff, accompanied by Marc, and they were both laughing over a group of photographs Marc held in his hands. They were also posting the pictures on the bulletin board outside of Mrs. Robbington's office. Pan hid and cloaked her ki to watch them as they got the last of the photos up, then dashed forward to look at the pictures as soon as the Harrison brothers were gone.

As she looked at the photographs, she too started laughing. There was Satan Videl, daughter of that weakling Hercule, and she was running down a hallway with slime, feathers, and a bucket stuck to her foot. Pan had heard about this scene, but had not personally seen it herself. Seeing the photographs of the prank now, she wished she had.

Pan thought about why the duo of Jeff and Marc would be putting these pictures up. They had not been here at school Monday when it happened, but that really didn't mean anything. Trunks had played pranks on people he wasn't supposed to be anywhere near them, and had gotten away with it. This was a prank organized in much the same way from what Pan could see. In fact, she would have even thought that Trunks had pulled this prank, if she had not seen him with Logan, Marron, and Maurice at lunch hen the prank was supposed to have happened. Still, it was too much like one of Trunks' pranks, and it was with one of Capsule Corps' products as well. Pan knew because the very note from Videl Satan's locker, laminated and framed, was hanging by a well-driven thumbtack to the bulletin board.

Was it possible that Jeff and Marc had been the ones who pulled that prank? If so, then they had just been caught in the act.

Pan grinned deviously. It was time for a little blackmail.

Her thoughts were interrupted by a high-pitched scream coming from the direction the duo had come from. Pan whirled around and darted off in the direction of the voice, for it was one she recognized very well: Bra's.

* * *

Trunks was putting his books away in his locker when his link with his sister surged with fear, anger, and indignation. He knew instantly what was up. With a resounding growl, Trunks dropped his backpack and sped off down to the main entrance, leaving an energy trail and several stunned people in his wake.

Trunks didn't care. He was seeing red.

* * *

At Bra's scream, Jeff and Marc snapped their heads around. They saw with their Saiyan super sight that it was indeed Bra who had just screamed, and that there was a good reason to scream. They both rushed to Bra's rescue, hatred burning in their flashing black eyes.

It was Verez, and he was trying to strangle Bra. Bra, however, being the half-Saiyan she was, was holding him off, literally. She, being untrained in the martial arts, was unable to get Verez on the ground, and as she had not used her Saiyan strength very often, or even built it up like the male Saiyans and Pan had, she wasn't strong enough to fling him away, either. But one thing that Bra had inherited and was famous for was her mother's lungs. So, she screamed. And none too gently, either.

Jeff and Marc arrived shortly on the scene after Bra's first scream. Jeff immediately shouted, "Verez!" and wrenched the shocked Verez off of Bra. He shoved Verez into the wall while Marc made sure that Bra was not injured. She wasn't, but was definitely shaken. Marc helped her up, handed her over to a windswept Pan, and turned to watch Jeff dole out the proper justice to Verez.

Trunks charged out of the building and bolted to his sister's ki. He bulldozed by Marc, or attempted to, for Marc latched onto his arm with a steel grip and held him back. Trunks struggled against Marc's grips, straining to get to Verez even with Jeff already pounding on him.

"Let--me--_go_!"Trunks snarled, turning to a stony-faced Marc. Marc himself replied,

"No. Verez isn't worth it. Bra's your sister. She's more in need of your attention that that pathetic moron is. Besides, my brother's taking care him."

Trunks, panting, stared into Marc's calm black eyes. He pulled his arm out of the other boy's hand, looked contemptuously at the hapless Verez, then turned to his sister. Trunks didn't know why, or how, but Marc's words made sense, and they calmed him down. And it was true. Bra was worth more to him than Verez was.

"Are you okay, sis?" Trunks asked. Bra nodded, the spirit back in her eyes. That was a good sign. Bra wasn't too shaken by Verez' attack on her then. In fact, Bra was glaring at Verez as Jeff continued to pound the Spaniard against the wall. Jeff was hitting so hard he was making bricks crumble with Verez' head, but he wouldn't stop until Verez was properly punished.

Finally, Marc stepped up and laid a placating hand on Jeff's shoulder. Jeff looked up at his brother, nodded, and dropped Verez on the ground. Verez was breathing heavily now, in short quick gasps, while the second-generation Z-senshi all stared at him. Jeff sneered and turned away, striding quickly past Trunks, Bra, and Pan. Trunks stopped him and said, very quietly,

"Thanks."

Jeff merely nodded. "I'm going to call the police. Keep an eye on him." Trunks agreed grimly with a nod of his own head and Death-Glared™ at Verez, who immediately ceased trying to escape and sat still. This was the scene the police found when they arrived shortly thereafter, Pan holding up Bra, Bra leaning on Pan, and Trunks stalwartly standing over a docile Verez. Verez was very silently handcuffed and led away, leaving three Sons and two Briefs to stare at each other for long awkward moments.

Pan finally broke the silence with, "Well, I guess we'll see you guys tomorrow."

"Yeah," Jeff said. Marc said, "Take care," to them, receiving three "You too" replies in turn. The Harrison brothers then turned and marched out of there, evacuating the premises to leave three very lonely members of the Z-senshi behind.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (1) I know nothing about how Japan treats its criminals. I'm just using creative license here, as an author/authoress is able to do. Forgive me for any slight upon Japan. /Bows humbly, waiting for the axe to fall/
> 
> (2) I don't know if this is correct, but the equivalent of 1,500,000 yen is 150,000 U.S. dollars.


	11. Guess Who's Coming to Dinner

The reactions of the rest of the Z-senshi to Verez' attempted assault upon Bra and the rescue performed by Jeff and Marc were pretty predictable, actually. Everyone was outraged and concerned, with Krillin being the most rational person there and Bulma and Vegeta vying for the title of the most irrational. Piccolo, who was also there, seemed to be unemotional, merely raising an eyebrow, while deep down, he really was thinking very, very, _very_ hard.

Dende was going to have some hard questions to answer when he got out of there.

The rage fits of both Bulma and Vegeta went on for hours, with Chichi joining them when she arrived and found out the news. All the Z-senshi had been called together for the retelling of this event, as should have been evident from the people already mentioned. However, they all also needed to decide what to do about Jeff and Marc Harrison. Those two had already saved Bra twice now, and Earth's Special Forces, especially Bulma and Vegeta, owed these two a large debt. But how could they ever repay them?

They couldn't. But they could try and lessen some of it. Maybe they would pay back all of the debt, maybe they wouldn't, but being invited to an exclusive thank-you dinner at Capsule Corps over the next weekend might help. Hopefully those two would come, for weren't those two, Jeff and Marc, supposed to strongly resemble Gohan and Goten? The Z-senshi would see for themselves, _if_ they came.

That was a big _if_. If Jeff and Marc were truly Gohan and Goten, then it was 75 possible that they _wouldn't_ come. But if they weren't, then it was 75 possible that they _would_ come. The odds were too confusing, but Bulma decided to just do it and see for herself whether or not Jeff and Marc Harrison would come, and if they did, how much they resembled the MIA Son brothers.

There was mixed emotions among the second generation of the Z-senshi itself. Trunks was pessimistic, saying in no uncertain terms that the Brothers Harrison were not going to come. Bra felt the complete opposite. She said that there was no way that they wouldn't come. Pan simply hoped that they _did_ come, because then she could probably find (or create) an opportunity to corner Jeff and start badgering him to fight. Marron was the only one who was truly in the middle. She didn't know whether or not Jeff and Marc were going to come, but she found herself hoping that they were, but understandably thinking that they weren't.

Marron had not had much contact with Jeff and Marc at all over the past few months. She'd only spotted Marc that first day of school, and even then he hadn't talked to her, or, she thought, even noticed her. Of course, she was wrong, Marc _had_ noticed her, but she didn't know that. Ignorance truly is bliss, eh? Other than that, apart from seeing him almost every day in study hall, Marron never, ever saw him. He didn't talk to her in study hall, either, having his own group of friends and his brother and _his_ group of friends to talk to.

Jeff was pretty much the same, only he came by to check up on her every once in a while, about once every two weeks, actually, and they actually exchanged words. But that didn't really mean anything; Jeff did this to everybody, especially the freshmen, as part of his duty as vice president of the Student Council. This interaction didn't mean that he was doing it out of his own will. Still, it _was_ nice, knowing that _one_ brother, at least, was not totally ignoring her. She sighed at the thought.

Trunks noticed. "Hey, what's wrong, Marron? You're being pretty quiet today. Normally you're bouncing off the walls like Bra," he said.

Marron mock-glared at Trunks for his impertinence. "I do _not_ bounce off the walls like your sister, _Trunks_. I merely have a lot of energy and very few outlets," she sniffed. Trunks rolled his eyes in answer. Marron grinned briefly at Trunks' exasperation, then sobered down again as she retraced her thoughts to the previous subject.

"Oh, I was just thinking about how Marc totally ignores me and how Jeff is at least a _little_ bit kinder to me," she answered absently. Trunks looked troubled, but then Pan jumped in.

"Jeff's kind to _everyone_, Mare. He's the more approachable one, so to speak. But Marc's pretty cool, too. You just have to be the one to go to _him_, not have him come to _you_. Marc won't do anything unless you take the first step and talk to him. _Then_ he'll talk to you, but only then," she said.

Marron and Trunks looked at Pan in shock. Where'd she get this knowledge?! Pan noticed and shrugged, a little sheepishly. "I have the same free period as he does, so I hang out with him and his friends during that time. They're really fun, although Marc is _really_ homework-obsessed," she told them, another sheepish shrug accompanying her statement. Finally Marron ventured forth a question.

"How do I do that? You know, approach him?"

Pan's answer was, "Do you have any homework troubles?"

:-:-:-:

Three days later saw Marron sitting in study hall, trying to screw up her courage. This wasn't going to be easy, but she'd kept torturing herself over the past two days, on the weekend, thinking about how she was going to do this. She'd decided yesterday that she was just going to ask Lindsay for help on math, since Lindsay's weak spot was math, and Marc's strong spot was math. It was also Ivory's strong suit, but Marron was willing to take a gamble. Or had been. Right now, she wasn't feeling so great about her plan. What if Pan was wrong? What if he truly _was_ ignoring her, Marc, she meant? She didn't like it all.

Finally, though, she decided to just do it. She turned and rummaged slowly in her backpack, withdrew her Algebra II books, and opened them. She opened the textbook to find the page of difficulty, marked it, then closed her book again. She laid her notebook on top, then hesitated again. Here went nothing…

"Hey guys, I'm no good at this Algebra stuff. I think I'll go ask someone to help me with this," she told her friends sitting next to her. Sarah looked up and nodded, while Natalie said, "Ask Marc to help you. He's a whiz. Or Jeff, if Marc can't help you." Marron nodded to her advice, took a deep breath, and stood up.

She turned and walked briskly over to Marc's group. All four friends were there, although there was a spot open for her, if they let her have it. Marc was busy at the moment, but Marron had not been planning to go to him directly anyway. She stopped before Lindsay and paused again, this time waiting for the girl to become aware of her. She didn't have to wait long.

"Hi," Lindsay said curiously, after looking up. Marron smiled shyly back. "Um, I don't understand my math homework. Could you help me?"

Lindsay looked stricken for a second, proving Pan's insight into Lindsay's weakness. Then she recovered and said, laughingly, "You're asking the wrong person, girl. The guy you want is Marc."

Having said that, Lindsay turned right around and nudged said person. Marron's eyes widened and her heart started beating a little faster as her plan folded out. Now it was time for the independent variable to come into play. How was Marc going to react?

"Huh, what? What is it, Lindz?" Marron distinctly heard Marc say. He turned around and spotted Marron, and Marron thought she something flash in those black eyes, but it was gone before she could decipher it.

"Hi," he said to her, his usual cheeriness showing through. Marron inwardly quirked an eyebrow, but Lindsay jumped in before Marron could say anything.

"Oh mighty Kami of mathematical wisdom, we are in need of your all-powerful help. Can you help this poor child with her Algebra II homework? Neither of us understand it," Lindsay bemoaned dramatically. Marron just had to grin at the junior's antics, even as Marc played along.

"Oh, I don't know. You're just a mortal, what do you have that I don't? You can't give me anything that I don't already have, can you?"

Lindsay snickered and pretended to hide something behind her back. Leaning back, Marron saw that it was a Butterfingers candy bar. Choking back a laugh, for obviously that was something that Marc liked, Marron straightened up. Marc looked at her questioningly, but Lindsay had a look on her face that told Marron not to tell. Marron just shook her head at Marc and held out her math books.

"Oh, yeah. Well, come on then. I'll help you. Just need to get the _mere mortal_ out of the way," he said. He stuck his tongue out at Lindsay in response to her doing the same thing to him. Lindsay moved over, taking her things with her in the process. Marron hesitantly settled down in between them, then opened her book to page 214 and pointed to the specific problem.

"I don't understand what the Theorem on the Maximum or Minimum Value of a Quadratic Function means at all."

:-:-:-:

To Marron's relief, the "experiment" went well. Marc didn't do anything to contradict Pan's confident summary of him, even agreeing to tutor Marron on anything mathematical that she needed. Marron was even more relieved on that, because he was easygoing and patient enough to take as long as she needed to figure out whatever it was that was bothering her. Trunks wasn't quite that same way, and besides, both he and Bra were more focused on science than math, although science basically _was_ math and math basically _was_ science, but those two were more in the experimentation and data collection and putting things together and taking them apart, etc.

Pan also was a math whiz, especially as she was in Advanced Calculus, but as it was her idea to get Marron close to Marc with the math difficulties, she wasn't about to help her. Not yet, anyway. If she was having too much difficulties even with Marc's coaching, then Pan would step in. However, Marron didn't think that Pan would need to step in. Not unless Marc was absent.

She had the feeling that this was the beginning of her redemption.

At least that was what it would be, if Marc truly were Goten.

:-:-:-:

Jeff raised an eyebrow as he looked at the mail. There was an envelope addressed to "The Harrison Family" in a familiar spiky handwriting, and the return envelope was the official address of the biggest company in Japan, Capsule Corporations. A knowing smirk spread over his face and he deliberately put down the envelope, then casually called out to Marc, who was in the next room.

"Marc?"

"Yeah?"

"Come in here, please?"

"Why?"

"Just do it, Marc."

"Okay, okay, don't tear your hair out." Footsteps could be heard as Marc assumedly walked across the room, even as Jeff replied, "As if I could."

Marc came around the corner just as Jeff said that, and it was with an acquiescent snort that Marc finished his epic journey from the next room and plunked down in the opposite seat across from his brother.

"What do you want?" he asked of his elder brother.

"Take a look at this. Remember that handwriting?" Jeff gave the envelope to his brother, and watched as the same smirk on his own face appeared on his brother's. They shared a glance and then ripped into the letter. Well, Marc did. He was the one with the letter, and Jeff was getting up to go around the table so that he would be able to read the letter over Marc's shoulder.

When Marc got the letter out of the envelope, and opened the letter itself, Jeff had to lean down in order to properly read the scrunched-down spiky handwriting on the paper, which was the same as that on the envelope. The letter read,

_Dear Mr. and Mrs. Harrison, _

_I do not know if you know what events transpired last Friday concerning my daughter and your sons, but I will not write of them here. They still enrage me to the point of complete and utter irrationality if I think about them._

The G brothers had to chuckle at this statement as they imagined the author of the letter raging about and scaring the employees who stood in her path. It was a scene that they had witnessed many times before, but it was never as funny as it was now.

_If you do not know what happened on Friday, I strongly suggest that you talk to your sons, Jeffrey and Marcus, before you read the rest of this letter. You may not understand what I am talking about otherwise. _

Jeff had told the parents what had happened on Friday, while Marc had informed Linda. Myna had only pursed her lips, while Jack had shaken his head. The latter had told Jeff that it hadn't been necessary to bash Verez' head in against the wall, but what was done was done. Jeff had merely shrugged in agreement.

Linda's reaction, on the other hand, was one of glee. The authoress is going to leave to the reader's imagination exactly _how_ she reacted.

_In gratitude for your son's actions, we are inviting you to dinner at the residential half of the Capsule Corporations Headquarters in West City. You will find included with this letter a formal invitation with the address, directions on how to get to that address, our private phone number, and the date and time of the dinner. Please RSVP by Thursday at the earliest, Friday at the latest. We sincerely hope that you come, for it is not every day that my daughter, Bra, or anybody else of the Briefs family needs rescuing. _

Yeah, right. Usually it was the Briefs who were involved in _doing_ the rescuing, not _being_ rescued. Marc's only comment was a very brief chuckle before he kept reading. Jeff's smirk just widened.

_We, "we" being myself, my husband Vegeta, my daughter Bra, my son Trunks, and my parents, would like to thank you even if you are not coming. So with this letter and the invitation is included a cheque of 200 yen, which is half of the money we obtained from an earlier lawsuit of the teacher who assaulted Bra. Please, take this. We will not take back a gift of money once it is offered. _

Seeing as gifts of money were offered so rarely by the Briefs, the Brothers Harrison could see why.

_However, this letter does come with one more thing. This thing is another letter, this one for your sons. This is to be read by them only, although it is up to them whether or not to divulge its contents. This is the last piece of news I have to say, so we will be hearing from you next Thursday or Friday. _

_Truly yours,_

_ **Bulma B. Briefs** _

Jeff dug out the other letter than was addressed to them and read it quickly. He then gave it to Marc, who also skimmed it. Marc put down the letter and stared at Jeff, who looked steadily back at him. Both pairs of the brothers' eyes had darkened upon reading the more personal letter, and the sunnier mood of them both had gone down the drain to be washed out, like the spider who went up the water spout.

This was getting down to the nitty gritty.

:-:-:-:

The first letter was shown to Myna, Jack, and Linda, as well as the formal invitation and the cheque. The second letter, despite Bulma's orders, was also read by these three, and now all of the Harrison family knew exactly what they would be dealing with at the dinner, that is, _if_ they were going.

The Harrison family was, at this very moment, debating that very issue.

Linda was saying, "But they think you're Gohan and Goten! It says so in that second letter!"

"Actually, it says that we resemble ourselves so strongly that they have suspicions that we are who we are. It doesn't actually say that directly," Marc quipped, always the stickler for details.

Linda just ignored her brother. "If those people at _Capsule_," she spat the word as if it were something bitter on her tongue, "get a good look at you, they will become convinced that you guys _are_ Gohan and Goten, and then they'll try and take you away from us!" she shrieked, working herself into a state of frenzy.

Jeff looked wide-eyed at his normally-cheerful older sister. It was not just the fact that Linda was getting panicky, it was also that she had said "and they'll try to take you away from us." Did Linda care about them so much that she panicked when the possibility of the Brothers being taken away arose? Apparently so. He would have to ask her this very question later when she was calmer, just to confirm solidly his theory.

For now, though, Jeff just went over to her and hugged her, providing Linda with another outlet to which she could vent her emotions. Linda accepted the channel readily, burying her head into her brother's shoulder and starting to sob. The hearts of everyone in the room wrenched tightly to see this picture, and everyone joined in to give Linda comfort with a group hug. They stayed this way until the object of the hug quieted, only hiccuping every few minutes or so.

Breaking apart, Jack let go of Myna, Myna released Marc, and Marc unclasped his hands from around Jeff's back. Jeff held onto Linda a little longer, but then his sister extracted herself from his arms, wiping her eyes as she did. Jeff's eyes were bright as well, even as he told her, "We won't be taken away. You guys have adopted us, so we're not legally of _their _family any more. We're Harrisons, and nothing is going to change that. _Nothing_. Do you understand?" Jeff placed his hands on his sister's shoulders and looked deep into her eyes.

"Do you understand?" he asked again, when Linda didn't respond. Linda slowly nodded in answer, then Marc spoke up.

"Jeff's right. Even if it comes to a court case, they won't take us away. We'll fight tooth and nail to make sure of that. However, if they manage to win, we'll just run away again. We _will_. Right, Jeff?"

The eldest demi-Saiyan nodded as he let go of Linda. Linda finally smiled through her tears, if a little shakily. She wasn't entirely convinced, not by a long shot, but she was getting there. Jeff smiled back, relieved that she was happier, and Marc grinned, for the same reason as his brother. Myna and Jack were happy, too, but Linda had brought up some very good points. _Would_ the Z-senshi try to get their sons back?

:-:-:-:

Linda retreated to her room to "freshen up". The rest of her family let her go, knowing that Linda really just needed some alone time, although one of them would be coming up to see how she was doing in a while. Jeff opted to be the one to do so, keeping in mind his question from earlier, during Linda's breakdown. He climbed up the stairs, making sure to make some noise so that Linda would be warned of his coming, and so wouldn't scream at him for sneaking up on her. Sure enough, when Jeff knocked on Linda's heavily decorated door, there was no scramble to get things organized, just a muffled,

"Come in!"

Jeff opened the door, went in, and closed the door after him. Linda looked up, smiled a still unsteady smile at him, and made room on her bed for him to sit down. Jeff rather flopped down on the bed, landing on his back on the feather-soft mattress Linda owned. He put his hands behind his head and looked up at Linda's ceiling, almost missing Linda's third feeble smile. He caught it out of the corner of his right eye though, and smirked back at her. The smirk faded as he looked at his sister and how quiet she was.

"You're still worried about them taking us away, aren't you?" he asked her solemnly.

Linda nodded, bending her neck so that her shoulder-length hair hid her face. It was a childhood habit that she had mostly grown out of, but she still reverted back to it whenever she was extremely nervous or didn't want to talk about something.

"Do you really care about us that you'd be devastated if we were taken away?" As almost per usual, Jeff got straight to the point.

Linda jerked and looked at her adopted brother with surprise. Jeff looked calmly back, although with a bit of curiosity mixed into his gaze as well.

Linda's forehead furrowed as she stared at Jeff. "Of course I do, bro. You and Marc are part of our family! Of course I'd be devastated if you two were taken away from us! I love you guys! Why are you asking me that question anyway?" she demanded to know.

Jeff just shrugged one shoulder and looked away. "The other people were supposed to love us too, but they didn't. Or they did, but not enough," he replied, quietly. Linda could hear in Jeff's voice that this had been bothering him for years, ever since he and Marc ran away, probably.

Forehead still furrowed, Linda put two fingers under her brother's chin and pulled his face towards her. She met Jeff's obsidian eyes with her own robin's-egg-blue ones and stared him down, forgetting all about her worries for the moment.

"Jeff, I don't think I know exactly how your former family put itself together, but it seems to me like it was a very loose organization," she started saying firmly. "Goku always seemed to be gone from your life, and Chichi seemed bent upon making Marc's and your lives miserable with just studying, studying, and more studying, no playing. Then the Earth seemed to always be in danger of being attacked by villains, from Radditz, Vegeta, Cell, and so on. _And_ on top of that you guys are half-aliens, hybrids between humans and Saiyans, and therefore born with powers that are paranormal to normal humans.

"I don't think that you four guys got the chance to really form a firm family bond like we have now. You've been too busy growing up beyond your age during your childhood, and then when it's all over, and everything's done, you guys are practically adults, and not kids anymore. I wouldn't be surprised if those other people just didn't know what to do with you two anymore," she told her brother. Jeff listened to her silently, not interrupting her, although he did have something to say to Linda's last sentence.

"Even though my… _those people_ didn't know what to do with us, they shouldn't have ignored us. They should have cared for us, done their best, even though they didn't exactly know how. They shouldn't have just given up. They'd never have given up if they had been fighting, Da… _Goku_ especially. So why? Why did they give up, Lin?"

Linda was sympathetic, but her advice didn't match the feeling, exactly. "Different people have different strengths, Jeff. They're strong in some areas, but have no clue what to do in other areas. This may have been the case with the Sons. Some people, when they don't know what to do with something, they ignore it, hoping that it will go away on its own. Those people may have done the same thing."

"But we're people! You don't ignore people, especially children!" Jeff cried, out of patience with the cruelties of the world.

Linda leaned over and hugged him, empathizing with her brother as best as she could. It was her turn to be there for Jeff and Marc now, after all the times they'd been there for her. Time for some payback.

"I know," she said to Jeff when they drew apart. "I know. But that's why you're with us. Because we know how to deal with people, and we won't _ever_ turn you away. Okay?"

Jeff nodded, glad he had Linda. Slowly his face broke into a grin as he thought about Linda's words, or more importantly, _how_ she'd delivered them.

"You're going to be a great mom someday, sis."


	12. Time to Meet Your Maker

To the disappointment of the Z-senshi, the Harrisons declined the dinner offer, offering the excuse that they had an annual family mountain climbing trip to go on. When the Z-senshi kids asked around, they found out that it was true; the Harrisons _did_ have an annual mountain climbing trip every year. It varied from year to year _when_ and _where_ the trip was to, but the trip was always on a weekend, and Jeff and Marc were always back on Monday, cheerful and raring to go.

This year, it seemed that the family was going to climb Mt. Yonito, a huge mountain actually quite close to where the Sons lived, on Mt. Paoz. It was only two mountain ranges over, and Pan had been commissioned to go and watch them, see if the Harrisons knew anything about the Sons, and if they did, how they reacted to the knowledge. It was a big job to be sure, but if they sent Goku, he would only mess it up by jumping up and confronting Jeff and Marc with their pseudo-identities. The Z-senshi did not need the kind of reaction that would follow, whatever it was. If they sent Chichi, well, she wouldn't be able to get to Mr. Yonito without the Nimbus, and Korin the cat usually used the Nimbus on the weekends so that he could get his supplies for his precious Senzu beans. So Pan was the only one for the job.

As it was only Thursday, it was much too early to think about such things. The Z-senshi had other problems, such as school, Jeff, Marc, the reasons for their turning it down other than the mountain-climbing trip to go on, if any, working off the frustrations that came with the turn-down, and many other things.

To add to those problems, Bra was insisting that she get sparring lessons from Pan at the Son household so that she could defend herself if she needed to. Her family and friends knew that it was really to get revenge upon future Verez-like characters if she ever met any more of them, but they said nothing about that. Instead they told Bra that she didn't need the sparring lessons, as she had plenty of people who would be willing to take care of any martial arts problems for her.

Bra's only reply was, "Yes, well, what if I find myself attacked without any of you guys around me? I've got to be able to take care of myself in case that ever happens."

The only female demi-Saiyan's logic was found to be irrefutable, and so the Spar Wars began.

Again, Pan was picked, because Vegeta would just go easy on his daughter, Trunks would do the same for his sister, Marron knew nothing about sparring, Bulma was the same, Chichi was too busy, and Goku would just goof off. Krillin wouldn't take Bra seriously, Eighteen would expect Bra to be able to do much more than she actually could, and Piccolo was busy being Piccolo (and right now that consisted of interrogating Dende for hours on end).

Pan, on the other hand, actually understood Bra's plight. She'd been in it herself only five years ago. She could empathize with the pain of being helpless and having to depend on others to survive, even if she didn't always do that.

Luckily for Bra, however, Pan only put up minor resistance, which was mostly in the form of skepticism aimed at Bra's sense of commitment. It took a lot of dedication to learn how to spar, and to keep sparring to keep those skills sharp. Bra knew, indirectly, exactly how much dedication was needed. Her father exhibited that assiduousness to his training every single day. Her brother even showed it: he sparred with their father every three days, regardless whether or not his homework was done. Trunks called it his PE practice, and this in addition to the tough junior varsity lacrosse practices Trunks was required to attend every day really kept him in shape.

Bra had tennis practice herself, and that was doing wonders in improving her athletic ability as well. However, knowing how to swing a tennis racket didn't do anything towards defending herself, unless of course she had the racket with her in the specific time of danger. Yeah, that would work. But it was impractical to assume that she would always have a tennis racket with her when danger approached, and thus she was determined to learn how to spar, no matter how much it hurt.

As could be expected, the demi-Saiyan certainly wouldn't be feeling the same way after her first spar with Pan.

Thursday and Friday were spent in learning the basics, such as the stances, the movements, drills, and breathing exercises needed for learning how to spar. Saturday and Sunday were called off because of the Harrison family trip, but Bra's homework was to keep practicing those things that she had learned. Pan would know if Bra hadn't been practicing. Monday, it was back to the grindstone, and they would see about the first spar at the end of the next week.

For now, though, Saturday was here. And so were the Harrisons, two mountain ranges away on Mt. Yonito. Pan was about to be added to that list, as she grabbed two plates of breakfast (loaded with French toast, dripping with butter and syrup, just the way Pan liked it) and headed out into the chilly morning dawn.

It was a good thing Pan had learned to wear long-sleeved shirts under her gi when she sparred in the morning, no matter what season it was. Of course, she was not going to be sparring with her father this early morning, but she had a mission to go on, and she was going to do it.

And judging by the five kis she could already feel, the Harrisons were already there. That could or could not be a good thing, depending on the variables also known as Jeff and Marc Harrison. If those two weren't Gohan and Goten, then the family's being there was a good thing. If those two were indeed Gohan and Goten, then the family's being there was a doubtful thing.

Ki reading was a skill that never died once a person learned it, and if those two were indeed the Lost Sons, then Pan would have to be careful around them. She would be, anyway, since this was a precarious situation all around, but as Pan was still not certain of the Harrison Brothers' feelings toward her, it became even more dangerous if those two were Gohan and Goten.

Pan sighed. Couldn't anything be easy?

Well, it was a good thing that Pan had brought her own customized Capsule jet/hoverboard with her, so that she wouldn't have to use any ki more than necessary. However, the problem was that they were noisy and loud in the silence that usually presided over the mountains, and Pan did not want that. So, what to do?

Pan solved the problem by hoverboarding over one mountain range and flying in slowly to land on a mountain halfway into the second mountain range. From there she hiked it, glad that she had put on her sturdiest boots, and not her usual light fighting shoes.

She was approaching the summit of the last mountain in her way when she finally felt them. The Harrisons, that is. And included with those kids were the crackling signatures of Jeff and Marc. Pan stood still in shock for a second, amazed that she had not noticed before now that Marc also had more than normal levels of ki. But then she thought about Marc and his easygoing personality, and she could easily see why. Still, even from a mountain away, she could tell that Marc was incredibly strong, as strong as his brother Jeff, even.

That made sense, especially if they were both whom she thought they were.

It was getting more and morel likely that those two were indeed the Lost Sons.

She still had to produce satisfactory work with her research, however. She just could not find any records of Jeff and Marc before they had appeared at the Harrisons'. There were plenty after the official adoption papers, but Pan was not interested in those. All the adoption papers showed as that Jeffrey and Marcus Harrison had both been adopted on April sixth five years ago. However, Pan had found it interesting that both had the initial "G" listed as their middle names. But Pan had not been able to get anything other than that, even though she definitely had her suspicions about what those names were.

So far, she had not told anyone of her findings. She considered them too sparse to really be of use, other than giving hope to the rest of her family, and not just the Sons, but the whole of the Z-senshi. It was a very real possibility that those hopes were false, however, and that just gave Pan all the more reason not to tell.

Pan sighed as she refocused on the situation. Now was definitely not the time to be thinking like this. So not the time.

Now that she was able to feel the kis of the mysterious Harrison family, Pan became even more cautious. As she crept up to the summit of her mountain, she constantly monitored their kis. She stopped every time there was a spike in any of the kis, be it Jeff's, Marc's, or any of the other three, or when she just felt like they knew she was there. She also gradually scrunched down her ki beyond what she'd already lowered it, until it was below even the level of an average human, and so would be missed if it wasn't looked for. Now she could only hope that she hadn't already been noticed, or she'd be in serious trouble.

* * *

Both Jeff and Marc were tracking the ki that had crept up on them. It was small now, almost too weak to register, but the Brothers Harrison had been alert for it ever since they arrived. They knew exactly where they were, and how close to their former home Mount Yonito was. So they had thought that one of the Z-senshi would come to spy on them, and it appeared that their prediction had come true, in the form of Son Pan.

How that girl had ever gotten to her current position at the summit of Mount Meko without using her ki was beyond them.

Of course, they alerted the other Harrisons of the fact that they were being spied on, but did warn the rest of their family to act normal. This was hard for them to do, as Linda, Myna, and Jack were all outraged, but as they could not sense ki, it was easier for them to do.

As for Jeff and Marc, they had had practice in acting casual for over four months. Well, more like three and a half, actually. It was December now, and the mountains were covered with snow. The Harrisons were all bundled up nice a warm, although Jeff and Marc had the advantage over their familiar counterparts with their ki. However, they had also bundled up with the plan to use as little ki as possible. Little did they know that Pan was trying to do the same thing, although they could say that she was doing an impressive job, for a super-powered human.

As Pan's ki slowly climbed up to the summit, Jeff started making his way to the foot of Mount Yonito. Marc caught the hint and started collecting the climbing gear, motioning to his sister to help him. She did, albeit a little grudgingly, and Myna and Jack both did their own temporary job of cleaning up the remnants of the breakfast they had just completed.

Fifteen minutes later, all of the Harrisons were standing before the mountain, looking up at its huge expanse. They all felt like the mountain was just daring them to come climb it, bragging that they couldn't get to the first ledge before they were forced to stop. Sharing glances, the Harrisons grinned and rushed forward to the mountain, ready to take the brooding cliff on its own terms.

* * *

Pan watched discreetly as the Harrisons went about their pre-climbing rituals. She saw with no little bit of amusement that Jeff and Marc seemed to be teasing Linda about her tangled-up ropes, teasing to which Linda responded huffily, although she smiled afterwards. Myna was already on the mountain, but Jack was hanging a few meters above her and looking down at her, almost as if he was encouraging Myna to come up to him.

Pan turned back to the Harrison children, only to discover that two of them were not there. And those two were exactly who Pan did not want to be missing.

Pan ducked back behind the summit of her mountain and tried frantically to find the kis of the two Harrison Brothers. She couldn't, even though she stretched her consciousness to the limit trying to track them down. Finally, she realized that she just would not find them. She decided to get off the mountain as quickly as she could, before she could get caught red-handed and landed herself in the doghouse.

Hardly noticing all the snow she through left and right, Pan slid down all the way down the mountain to its foot and set off. She was still careful to make sure that she didn't use too much of her ki, and that said ki didn't get to high to be noticed.

All too soon, Pan came to a clearing that she had skirted before to get to Mount Meko. She hesitated this time, debating whether to cross it to cut down on the time to get back to her own home or to skirt it and decrease her chances of getting caught. It was for some time that Pan vacillated, before finally she decided to cut across. Hey, if she ran really fast, then no one would be able to catch her, right?

She looked furtively both ways, checking that no one was there in the same clearing with her, then darted across. Unfortunately, in her growing panic, she had not checked with her ki reading abilities, or she would have absently noticed the two figures that were suddenly occupying the mountain with her.

_"Gotcha!"_ said a familiar strong voice behind her.

* * *

"What do you want? Why are you here?" Jeff asked furiously of Pan, who was currently crouching, frozen, before him. Pan was inwardly smacking herself for being so stupid as to get caught in a clearing, but she looked up at Jeff's heated tone. She blinked calmly at him, and said, with that same calmness,

"Spar with me."

* * *

Marc stared at the girl who had intruded upon his and his family's peace. He had never before noticed her subtle resemblance to his former family before, nor had he cared to do so. But now, as he studied her intently, he could see that she possessed more than Goku's gait, his and Chichi's slight taints on Pan's otherwise foreign ki, and a bit of Chichi in the face. Pan also had Goku's seriousness in battle, even if she carried that seriousness a bit further outside of fighting than he did, and also Chichi's persistence and resourcefulness when she focused on something.

Of course, Pan could have had these traits before she came to live with the Sons, but certainly those traits would have developed more fully than normal under the Sons' care, if she did indeed have those traits before. Now, Marc didn't know how Pan had come to live with the Sons, but he knew that she would have had to be in a less than desirable living situation for his hated biological parents to take her in. So, if Pan's cheerful, and cunning, nature was to be any judge, yes, she _had_ at least had _some_ measure of resourcefulness pre-Son.

Well, this wasn't exactly the time to be thinking about the mysterious girl who was such a puzzle. Pan was obviously itching for a fight, and with his brother. Jeff, on the other hand, had made it an official policy never to fight anyone, no matter how strong they were, or how weak, excluding his brother, of course. Marc had the feeling that he wasn't going to drop that just because Pan had been training with Goku and was so much stronger than any normal human. So he prepared himself for battle, slipping silently into a fighting stance, consciously not allowing his ki to spike as he did so.

Jeff could feel behind him that Marc was in a martial arts stance, ready to fight Pan if Jeff let him. The elder Harrison male didn't indicate that he knew what his brother was up to, however, instead focusing on Pan, who had jumped up and was again badgering him to fight her.

"Fight me, Jeff! Or I'll tell the whole school that it was you and Marc that played that prank on Videl last month," Pan threatened.

Jeff raised his eyebrow. Had she seen them actually play the prank? He didn't think she had; her ki had been nowhere near the place. Still…

He asked her smoothly, "Why do you say that? The prank was reported to have occurred over our Thanksgiving break; we weren't there."

Pan countered with, "I saw you putting up the photographs of Videl's prank on the common bulletin board the day Bra was attacked." The challenging look on her face intensified, almost turning into a look of accusation. In fact, Jeff was sure it _was_ a look of accusation, if not for the amused glint in the girl's eyes.

"Well, yeah. The actual pranksters wished to remain anonymous, and so they asked us to put up the photos for them. I am not going to tell you who they are, for your information" he added as Pan opened her mouth. "And besides, witnessing something like that is not going to get you anywhere if you're still thinking that we did it."

Pan's gaze smoldered into a glare, and she snapped, "Fine. But I still want to fight you. Prepare yourself!"

Jeff held up his hands in a defensive manner. "Wait a moment! First tell me why you want to fight me," he said, stepping back a pace.

Pan was not fooled by the not-so-obvious tactic to throw her off track, as she'd heard it being used before, on someone more hapless than she. Nevertheless, she answered vaguely, "I have my reasons." Without further ado, she rushed at him, only to have him sidestep her easily, although he certainly made it look difficult. Her forward momentum was too much for her to stop, and therefore it carried her forward straight into the waiting fist of the other brother, Marc.

_Oomph!_ Pan's breath whooshed out of her, for the fist had connected directly with her abdomen. Marc was also stronger than she had thought him to be, even with the revelation of his crackling ki she had come across earlier. Before Pan could recover, Marc quickly spun around and roundhouse-kicked her, sending her flying into the snow. The snow did nothing to cushion the effects of her fall, leaving Pan with a sore head and a bruising back.

The girl looked up and rolled hastily to the side, however, as Marc came whistling through the air, obviously intending to flying-kick her. He crashed into the snow, but pulled his leg out quickly and blocked Pan's attack. He counteracted with his own attack, pressing Pan back as he struck in various different places with lightning speed. He never hit in the same place more than twice, and Pan was having difficulty, at first, in keeping up with him.

Soon, however, Pan managed to get in a lucky blow that momentarily distracted Marc and gave her a chance to escape. She slid back away from him and into a fighting stance only meters away, while Marc stood up and slid into his own stance.

For seconds, the two stared at each other, Marc's black eyes unreadable, Pan's eyes intense. Both were breathing heavily, their breaths steaming in the cold air surrounding them, and both were sweating, their exercise doing wonders to ward off the chill. This also was rising off in steam from them both, making them seem like pale fire apparitions that had no business being there in the arctic regions they were in.

Then Marc moved as if to take a step and Pan shot forward to meet him. Marc smirked to himself and stood his ground, allowing his opponent to come. Pan knew that she'd just fallen into a trap of some sort, as Marc didn't move to meet her, but she'd already started moving, and she couldn't stop now.

So it wasn't a surprise when Marc drop-kicked her, but it was a surprise when Marc didn't throw a ki blast her way. Then she remembered: she was fighting a strong human, or the appearances of a strong human, and he wasn't supposed to know about ki. She controlled herself, restraining the urge to use ki herself, and dodged out of the way as Marc attempted to punch her as she lay on the ground.

It was hard, suppressing her ki so that she wouldn't give away its secret, especially as she was both used to using it and as she'd already unconsciously let it blossom out of her control. No, it wasn't out of her control, but it had been rising steadily, and Pan needed to keep it down, or she would slip eventually and let loose a ki blast. That was something that she absolutely could not do.

But it was so hard, since Marc was so fast, so strong, and so full of mettle. This battle had been going on for what seemed hours already, and Pan's opponent didn't seem to be getting low on energy just yet. Pan, on the other hand, was already starting to falter, getting tired, clumsy, and slow, and Marc obviously took advantage of those moments of weakness. Pan didn't know how long Marc had been sparring, or where he had learned to fight like this (and this was assuming that he wasn't Goten), but obviously he'd been fighting for far longer than she had, a pitiful five years.

Marc could tell that Pan was getting tired. It'd been a half-hour of fighting already, so Pan was doing pretty well against him. Impressive, for a human, and a girl to boot. Not that gender really mattered in fighting. Look at his biological mother. She had been a mean fighter in her day, and he had no doubt that even now she could still put up a fight if she wanted to, especially with that darn frying pan, if she still had it.

He punched Pan in the face, giving her what was sure to be a black shiner on her cheek, and she staggered back. She recovered quickly, quickly enough to block Marc's next punch, but she failed to see Marc's leg coming around, and he swept her feet out from beneath her. Marc tried to step on her as his next attack, but she grabbed his foot and pushed it away from her, hoping to make Marc fall.

Marc foiled that plan, however, by somersaulting backwards. Pan got up, ignoring the aches and pains she had accumulated fighting against Marc, and chased after him. She was careful not to get too close to him, however, so that he couldn't kick her as he somersaulted. As Marc sprang off his hands a final time, Pan put forth an effort to grab him in midair and thus interrupt his momentum. She barely missed him, as he was too fast for her, and he landed on the trunk of a tree, where he grabbed onto a branch of the tree and stopped.

Pan slid to a halt before the tree and squinted up at Marc, who waved cheerily back with two fingers. She growled under her breath and prepared to use a ki blast to shoot him down, before she remembered that she couldn't use those. By then, it was already too late, for Marc had taken advantage of his opponent's distraction and leapt at her from above. He had his hands clasped together in a double-fisted move, and with an almighty swing, smashed them down on Pan's head. Pan, already staggeringly tired, dropped to the ground like a stone, and was still, stretched out on the snow-covered ground before Marc.

Pan's opponent walked over to her, bent, and checked Pan's pulse, then waved his hand slowly in front of Pan's open eyes. He got several blinks for his answer, so he straightened up and gingerly put his foot on Pan's chest to indicate, tentatively, that he had won.

Pan groaned and tried to move, but her sore back protested the action, and the pain was too much for Pan to ignore. So she lay back and looked up instead at Marc.

Marc, who had a slight smile playing around his mouth.

The smile was not a smug one, however. It wasn't even a triumphant one. It contained what Pan imagined to be respect, a grudging respect, but as the smile widened, the enigmatic emotion was lost in the change to delight.

"Nice job, Pan. Most of the people I spar with, and they are strong, don't last this long. I commend you on your skill," he said, removing his foot carefully from the base of her throat. Pan only noticed in passing that Marc had exerted no strength to keep her down with that foot, but pushed the thought to the back of her mind for more pressing matters.

"Where'd you learn to spar like that? I've never had a challenge like this one." This was definitely true, as Pan had never been this mercilessly beaten, not even at Vegeta's or Goku's hands. And she'd most definitely had not had to hold back her ki skills against her father or her best friends' father.

Marc, inwardly, grimaced. Externally, he smirked. "Oh, here and there. Mostly I spar against my brother, who is just as strong as I am, maybe a little stronger," he replied nonchalantly, shrugging his shoulders. Pan blinked in no little bit of shock as she rested where she was in the snow, still steaming from the spar. Marc smirked wider at Pan's surprise, and offered a hand to help Pan up. She accepted it, although painfully, and gasped as she was pulled up with a force she still didn't expect from Marc. The good thing about that force, though, was the fact that she experienced very little pain in her back as Marc pulled her up.

Pan was able to stand, but she needed help in walking, help she received from a cheerful Marc. Jeff, who had gone unnoticed throughout all of the spar, came out to greet them, and again, Pan saw something like respect flit across his face as he walked across to them.

"Well, Marc, Pan, I'd say that we can honestly say that that was the spar of the century," he greeted them, a laughing lilt to his voice. Pan grinned weakly back, conveying her thanks for the compliment.

"Yeah," Marc replied, "that was a great spar, wasn't it? Better than some of ours, even." Pan looked at Marc in surprise, even as Jeff nodded.

"I believe that. It almost made me wish that I didn't have my non-fighting policy, for once."

Pan transferred her shocked gaze to Jeff, who just smirked at her. He then stepped back and eyed her critically, then looked his brother over.

"Jeez, Marc, what'd you do to Pan to get her all bruised and bloody like this?" he demanded to know. Pan, confused, looked down at herself for the first time since the spar began, and understood Jeff's concern. Her gi was shredded in some places, so Pan could see that she was covered in all sorts of bruises, ranging from a small pink one on her leg to the huge black one on her upper arm. Pan knew that her face was probably just as much of a mess, especially on the cheek where Marc had punched her. And her back, ohh, her back was going to be one solid punch of pain when she woke up tomorrow.

"I sparred with her," was Marc's succinct answer to his brother's question. Jeff shook his head at his brother and muttered something Pan didn't catch, but which caused Marc to glare blandly at him. Pan shrugged inwardly, and simply focused on putting one foot in front of the other. She couldn't fly at the present moment, and not just because she was low on ki, but because she was in the presence of those who supposedly did not know about ki. Marc hadn't used a single ki blast or enhanced his speed using ki, not that he needed to do that, Pan contemplated. She shuddered mentally to think of how fast Marc could get if he knew how to manipulate ki. That idea was not a pretty sight.

It was not just for those two reasons that Pan wasn't flying away at the present moment. It was because she was actually enjoying the company of the two Harrison Brothers, now that she had stopped being so demanding. She knew that she'd been acting like a brat in trying to get Jeff to spar with her, and she'd paid the price dearly for it. She was in no hurry to repeat her performance, although she _was_ sure she was going to spar with them again. But that time seemed far off, and she simply applied herself to the task of relishing the presence of the bantering Harrison Brothers.

Jeff turned away from his brother after his retort with an eyebrow raised and a mild glare set on his face. Pan grinned slightly at his expression, eliciting a smile from Jeff as well. His face suddenly changed into one of bafflement, and Pan unconsciously braced herself for the question that was to come.

"Where do you live, anyway? I don't think we have an address for you in the Directory, just a phone number."

Pan blinked, and a blush stained her cheeks. "Uh," she stuttered, her brain racing wildly for an answer. Surely these two wouldn't believe she lived on Mt. Paoz? No, they wouldn't. So she came up with the lame and totally unbelievable answer, "Around here," with a vague wave of her free hand to accompany it. Jeff raised an eyebrow, sharing a glance with Marc, who was equally interested, and returned his interrogative gaze to Pan, as did Marc.

Pan noticed the gazes and sighed in defeat. She _hated_ it when people did that to her, and mostly those people were her mother and her father. They didn't do it to her very often, but it was often enough to tell her that she would be in trouble if she didn't tell them what they wanted to know.

"Fine. I live in 439 Mountain Area, on Mount Paoz." There, it was out. Pan sneaked a glance at the two brothers, expecting to see what she got. Yep, the two Harrison brothers did indeed have disbelieving looks on their faces, but at least their jaws weren't hanging open, like she'd anticipated. Darn.

"Mount Paoz?" Marc finally shrieked. Pan winced and nodded. "But—but—but—" he stammered, unable to get anything out other than that.

Jeff rescued him, however, with his own statement. "But that's five hundred kilometers from Satan City," he deadpanned, his voice containing no emotion.

Pan nodded mutely again. Things were going exactly as she'd thought they'd go. Which wasn't necessarily a bad thing, but it would have been interesting if they'd reacted another way.

Jeff shook his head unbelievingly, then asked, in a voice that reflected his inner chaos (or whatever balderdash those fortune-tellers were always saying, Pan thought), "Do you live in the city on the weekdays?"

"Nope," Pan denied. Marc's eyes bugged out. Incredulously, he inquired,

"You mean you actually travel five hundred kilometers a day to get to school?"

"And five hundred to get back home."

"Kami! How do you ever get to school on time?" Marc continued, still incredulous.

Pan responded, "I don't. On a good day I'm only fifteen minutes late. On a really bad day, I'm like forty-five minutes late. The worst day was when I was over an hour late. I missed the whole of first period English. I even get up like two hours early, too. I just never make it." Sparring with Goku too long tended to do that, Pan mused wryly.

Unbelieving silence filled the next few seconds, during which Pan suddenly shivered. They'd been standing in the snow-covered clearing for all of ten minutes, during which Pan had actually cooled down. Now she was freezing. She loosened slightly her hold on her ki, which had bounced back a little since the spar. She would be able to fly slowly now, but Pan still didn't feel like leaving yet. And besides, she had the feeling that they weren't done yet.

"Oh, are you cold?" Marc said at the same timethat Jeff asked "Do you have anybody who lives closer to school and wouldn't mind having you overnight?"

Pan blinked at the double barrage of conversation she was suddenly on the receiving end of. She tried to sort out who had said what, but was saved when Jeff repeated himself.

"Oh, yeah, I do," Pan answered. Marc nodded and set off again, this time not stopping as they talked. "But I can't expect them to be able to host me all the time, so I haven't asked them if I could yet."

And besides, Bra would constantly be chattering her ear off if she did stay over, and Pan seriously needed to get her homework done. She went home with the Briefs every day anyway, but she always slept at home. She wouldn't get any peace if she didn't.

"Well, I suggest that you ask them. They may surprise you," Jeff suggested. Pan nodded, keeping her thoughts to herself. The trio engaged in other small talk for the rest of the long steep walk down to the Harrison camp, Pan talking less and less as she concentrated more and more on getting down without tumbling. Marc was a great help, and Jeff caught her once, but it was mostly through her efforts that she was finally standing at the bottom of the mountain.

And then she collapsed.


	13. Getting Home

"Pan! Are you all right?" Marc asked worriedly. Inside he was smirking knowingly, for Pan's slowly growing ki indicated that she was just faking it. However, he did have to keep up the act, as he was doing.

"Y-yeah, I'm fine," Pan's voice responded groggily from the crumpled heap resting at the bottom of the mountain.

Jeff said, "Would you have collapsed if you really were fine, Pan?" squatting down to check on her. Marc knew that Jeff knew that Pan was just faking it, and he had to suppress a smirk as his brother, the Master of Calmness, took charge.

"Yeah, yeah," was Pan's grumbled reply. Both of the Harrison brothers outright Grinned™ at this, striking Pan dumb again at their resemblance to her father's own Classic Smile™. But as Pan stared at them, they instantly reverted back to their former selves, settling back into Jeff and Marc, not two boys with her father's dazzling Grin™.

It helped Pan to clear her head of the amazing revelation she'd found when Marc remarked, "I must have gone harder on you than I though. Sorry." He shrugged a further apology as Jeff Looked™ at him, as if to say, "I told so."

Pan waved off Marc's apology, thinking that her father and Vegeta would never go hard on her as Marc had done. She was hard-put to keep up with them as it was, but she was proud to say that she could, indeed, keep up. She wouldn't ever hear those words that Marc had uttered or Vegeta, though.

"It's fine. I wonder how I'm going to get home, though," Pan finally said. From the expressions on the Brothers Harrison's faces, they were wondering the same thing.

"Well," Jeff started, "how did you get here in the first place? Surely you didn't hike over here from Mount Paoz," he said, his tone offering a chance to contradict his statement. A chance which Pan took, feeling both brave and sheepish at the same time.

"Part of the way, I did. I left my house on a hoverboard and went as far as Blazon Mountain before I ditched it and went on foot the rest of the way," Pan admitted nonchalantly, or tied to act nonchalant. She squirmed under the blank gazes of Jeff and Marc, though, belying the offhandedness of her delivery.

"Blazon Mountain," Jeff deadpanned. Pan nodded sheepishly again, even as Marc blurted out,

"You have a hoverboard?"

:-:-:-:

After Pan explained about her hoverboard (Prototype Y-750) and that it wasn't programmed yet to go into a capsule and also it was a _prototype_, it wasn't even out yet, and after Jeff finished giving his brother a head noogie for his insensitivity to Pan's plight, Marc came up with the idea of getting out the stretcher so that Pan wouldn't be hurt too badly on the way to the Harrison camp. Pan had adamantly refused to be carried by either Jeff or Marc, saying that she'd rather die than suffer such a blow to her pride.

The Harrisons had rolled their eyes at Pan's antics, but they had been forced to agree when Pan showed that she still had energy left to kick someone, and kick hard. Poor Jeff. Marc was smart enough not to get closer to her after that, and Jeff certainly retreated in a dignified way. Well, limping can't really be called dignified, can it? Especially as the limp was not real.

So Marc rushed off to find the stretcher, leaving a wary Jeff with an apologetic Pan. However, a shout came soon after from Marc's direction, and the pair instantly turned alert, both scanning Marc's ki for any trouble. There seemed to be none, but Jeff stood up anyway.

"Stay here, Pan. Don't move a muscle. I'll be back soon," he warned her. Pan nodded, inwardly scheming, and Jeff took off through the snow, startling Pan as white stuff rained down on her as he did. Jeff disappeared rapidly into the bare and brown-clothed forest where Marc had gone, and when he was sufficiently out of sight, Pan stood up. She was worried about Marc, but this was too good of an opportunity to pass up. Besides, Marc's ki didn't indicate anything out of the ordinary, but Pan still felt anxious.

Even so, she wrapped he energy around her and shot up into the air, leaving behind her own storm of snow, grander and on a larger scale than Jeff's storm.

She dropped onto Blazon Mountain to collect her hoverboard, then jumped back into the atmosphere and traveled leisurely back home, thankful that she didn't need a lot of energy to fly, and that she didn't need to move much during that same exercise. She was definitely snatching a Senzu when she got home.

Behind her, on Mt. Meko, two boys were standing stock-still, looking up after her, and they were smiling.

:-:-:-:

Pan got home, had her Senzu, and relayed her whole adventure, especially her spar with Marc, even though she had lost it, to her family. Goku had been ecstatic to know that Marc was such a strong person, although he'd deflated when Pan told them that Marc didn't know anything about ki. Yeah, that had just knocked out all of Goku's enthusiasm in one single hit, although Vegeta, who had come over for his own spar with "Kakkarot", had risen an eyebrow and grunted. Whether the grunt had been disapproving or disbelieving, or something else, Pan couldn't tell. Knowing Vegeta, though, it was probably disbelieving.

Pan didn't blame him. Who could, when Pan had looked such a glorious mess as she'd been. No, no one could blame him for taking her statement with a grain of salt.

When the question was raised whether or not Pan would go back and spy on them, "them" being the Harrisons, it was unquestionably answered with a firm "no" from Pan, and Chichi, too, unsurprisingly enough. When Pan had come home bloody and bruised from her adventures, Chichi had raised a huge fuss. She'd complained about the Harrisons and how she was never going to be friendly towards them again.

She'd come close to face-faulting, though, as a weary Pan had pointed out that a) the Harrisons were justified in the handling of her; after all, she _had_ been the one spying on them, and b) Chichi had never been friendly towards the Harrisons; she'd never even met them! Still, Chichi grumbled, her wrath unspent, throughout the day and snapped at everyone and glared at everything, except for Pan, of course. The Frying Pan of Male Starvation and Head Bumps was happy that day, however. Although it is a mystery as to how Teflon can so easily defeat a Saiyan's head when the latter is so hard, and can stand up to so many things that were stronger and more terrifying than the former.

Since Pan had planned to stay out at Mount Meko all day, she had done her homework the night before, all of it. Including the troublesome English, a subject that Chichi was surprisingly, at least from Pan's point of view, helpful with. Pan was relieved when Chichi explained that she had only glossed over the English part of her studies because she'd needed to teach Pan a lot of other things that were more important.

So it was not because her mother didn't know more than the basics of English that Pan was struggling. Thanks to this revelation and the help that had subsequently followed, Pan actually _understood_ some of the intricacies of the complicated language that had previously escaped her. Some, but not all. Those were to come later.

All of this meant that Pan didn't have anything pressing to do, except for teaching Bra how to spar. Vegeta had told her that his daughter was out shopping that day, however, so there went that. Pan had made the Saiyan Prince promise to tell Bra that Pan was free tomorrow, and that she'd better get to work on practicing the drills she'd learned, or else. Vegeta had even said that he would personally see to it that his daughter practiced, which made Pan feel two things. One emotion was sympathy for her friend. Vegeta was an absolute tyrant when it came to practicing in terms of fighting. The second thing was that Pan realized more fully how just much Vegeta was worried about Bra right then. He wouldn't have had such a glint in his eyes as he promised otherwise. Vegeta really did feeling things, especially towards his own family; he just didn't show it as much as her father Goku did. This realization served to increase Pan's respect for him, a respect that had already been substantial in number.

Despite this, Pan still leered at him as he stumped in after beating Goku in their spar. Vegeta simply scowled back at her, well used to the teenager's antics. Pan smirked in response to his scowl as she got up to go to her room. Vegeta eyed Pan critically as she turned and walked out of the room. The girl appeared to be all right, but one never knew with humans. Chichi was living testament to that, as was his own mate Bulma. His daughter was not quite the same way, but Vegeta had a feeling that things would be different when she grew up.

Vegeta sighed, a deep whooshing sound. Thank Kami Trunks, at least, was stable with his emotions. That's all he had to say.

Still, there had been a sense of something not quite right with Pan, or wrong, either. Something was just off with Pan, and Vegeta hoped, no, _prayed_, that it wasn't anything major. The Saiyan Prince didn't know if he could handle any more stress that he'd had already.

Pan, on the other hand, had reached her room as Vegeta had stood unmoving in the kitchen. She sat on her bed and tucked her legs under her Indian-style. Placing her wrists on her knees and turning her hands palm-up, she closed her eyes and took a deep breath. She held it for two seconds, then released it slowly and stopped her lungs from expanding for another two seconds. She continued to regulate her breathing like this for a while, even as she thought about the events that had taken place that day. She focused specifically on one thing that subconsciously bothered her: Marc's statement of, "I must have gone harder on you than I thought. Sorry."

What had Marc really meant by that? Had he been holding back on her? Or had he really gone all out on her like he'd acted like he had? That didn't make any sense however, that last one. Marc had not been as bad off as she had been, or had at least acted like he was not as bad off as she was.

Kami, this was so confusing! What was the truth, and what was simply assumption? What had been the emotion in Marc's eyes as he had said what he had said? He had been casual, yes, and there had been a lilt of amusement in his voice, but Pan had see, or thought she had seen, something else in those black eyes. But what was it?

_Stop worrying so much, Pan, _her inner voice demanded, abruptly making its return after being absent for months. It sounded suspiciously like Jeff. Pan groaned inwardly, but another voice chimed in before she could answer.

**Yeah, you're giving us all a headache, **the new voice said. This one, too, was familiar, but it sounded like Marc's voice this time. Pan was too shocked at the appearance of the second voice to register it, however. The only thought that was running in her head under her still-regulated breath was _I'm going insane._

She didn't hear the two voices say, _**Yes, you are.** _

:-:-:-:

When the Brother Harrison returned to camp, they found the rest of the family grouped around in the tent, having reached the summit they were aiming for in the demi-Saiyan's absence. All three of them looked up expectantly, their cups of hot chocolate revealed in their hands by this group movement, at the arrival of the youngest Harrison members. The air tightened with tension and it seemed as if the whole world held its breath with Linda, Myna, and Jack.

Finally Marc's face warmed into a smile. Jeff smirked not long too long afterwards, and said simply,

"I have a feeling that they won't be bothering us for a while."

Three faces smiled, no, _beamed_, at that, and the world celebrated. Hey, it was only they near Mount Yonito. It seemed that they were the only ones left alive in the world. So it was okay to feel as if the world felt what they felt, saw what they saw, and far more than that, heard what they heard, and still more than they, and all else. But the world would never tell what the Harrisons told. No, it would never do that, not even in echo form, not with the snow muffling the sounds all around.

Of course, the Z-senshi could send someone else to spy on them, Marron for instance. It was a possibility. But, for some reason, Jeff didn't think so. Marc agreed: he felt that they had earned Pan's respect at least, or at least enough of it to prevent any more moles from coming through. If Marc's judgement was incorrect, and the Z–senshi did employ one of its members for the task of espionage, well, Jeff and Marc wold just treat that spy the same way that they had treated Pan.

With this in mind, the Harrisons looked forward cheerfully to the next bout of climbing, especially as Jeff and Marc had some catching up to do.

The weekend passed, and no especially strong kis were spotted, and a lot of laughter sounded in the mountains because of that. They would never know how badly the Z-senshi wished to "check" on them, or how many times Pan had to tell the Z-senshi the news that Jeff and Marc, well, Marc anyway, did not know how to sense ki. Because of this message, the Harrison Brothers were finally in the process of being acquitted of the charges of being Son Gohan and Son Goten, although all of the members of Earth's Special Forces would forever believe that the Harrisons to be the Lost Sons. Therefore everyone kept asking Pan over and over again if she was sure that Marc couldn't sense ki.

No, the American family would never know of the struggles of several Japanese families not very far, or very close, to them, although they would suspect something of it. It could not be said whether the Brothers truly cared about the subject of the inner problems of their former families, or not, for they just kept on living the way they lived: laughing, having fun, fighting, being angry, moping, being sad, working, being stressed, and meditating, relaxing. But there were indeed times when a shadow passed over Marc's face, and Jeff's head was bent, a closed look on his own countenance. So, as aforementioned, it could not be determined whether the Brothers cared or not. But life went on for both parties, the Harrisons and the Z-senshi, into the winter months of December, in which Christmas would be celebrated by the Harrisons, and the American and Japanese dates for New Year's Eve and Day. Before the celebrations could happen, however, the Brothers, Pan, Trunks, Bra, and Marron had to go back to school. There they would have to confront each other, and Marron, for one, was positively dreading the encounter.


	14. Overture to the Moment of Truth

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Mentions of past child abuse.

Marron woke early that Monday morning with butterflies in her stomach. The familiar view of the beautiful sea outside did absolutely nothing to soothe her nerves. Instead it seemed to mock her misery and anxiety with its cheerfulness, increasing the negative emotions that churned within the demi-Android.

But why would Marron be miserable on such a fine day? Well, it was the day that she had to go back to school after the weekend of espionage upon the Harrison family, and Marron did not think that Marc was going to be friendly to her after that. Jeff wasn't going to be too happy either, and the wrath of these two would be very fearsome, she knew. The stories that her school friends had told of the pranks played upon the people who truly annoyed the Harrison Brothers (a category which included the beloved daughter of Satan, Videl) were haunting at worst and absolutely hysterical at best. But Marron feared a far rarer punishment that the Brothers reserved solely for their friends: the silent treatment.

Although (working under the assumption that Jeff and Marc were in actuality Gohan and Goten), if you really thought about it, the Z-senshi were getting the cold shoulder from the Harrison Brothers. Marron found a weird sort of hope in this otherwise bleak prospect, for if they were really the Lost Sons, then the silent treatment meant that they had considered the group to be friends once.

Marron snorted. Of course Gohan and Goten had thought of them as friends. HFIL, they'd been _family_, for Kami's sake! The emotional scars from the Z-senshi's betrayal would be so deep in the hearts of the Lost Sons that Marron would not be surprised if they never, ever, forgave them. However, Marron reminded herself forcibly, the Harrisons weren't necessarily Gohan and Goten.

But still, if the Sons had considered them, the Z-senshi that is, as friends, then there was a small possibility that they would do so again. It was highly unlikely, because of the scars left by the treachery, but it was this that made Marron finally get out of bed instead of pleading an upset stomach. The latter action would not have been hard for Marron to do, however, as it was still jumping around crazily as she dressed, fixed her hair, and descended down the stairs for a quick breakfast. The stomach calmed as its direction was diverted to the all-important task of digestion, of breaking down glucose into ATP and pyrites, and stripping oxygen from those pyrites, et cetera, et cetera. Marron felt better afterwards, but the feeling rapidly disappeared as Marron climbed into the air and headed toward Satan City, formerly Orange Star.

:-:-:-:

Linda waved cheerfully to her brothers as they departed from their driveway on their journey to Orange Star High. She watched them go with dark brown eyes under a wave of raven-black hair let free that morning. She would tie it up later, to keep it out of her face, but for now she didn't need to. As the van disappeared around the corner of their block, Linda stepped back and closed the door, shutting out the world and reality in one click of the lock.

As soon as the door clicked, Linda sagged against it in relief. She let her black hair (straight, with many chewed ends from failed attempts to concentrate on college homework) fall around her face, which was an absent-minded effort to hide her worries from other people that she'd fallen into the habit of doing as a child. As her hair fell, Linda let her mask of cheer drop, her smile sliding off of her face without the support it had had for the past fifteen minutes.

Today was the day that her brothers were going to encounter those four people from the Z-senshi again. Today was the day in which Jeff and Marc were going to judge whether or not they were still worthy of acknowledgement, or if the espionage thing was too much of a black mark against them. To Linda, the judgement was the latter, but as she had never met the Z-senshi and did not know their reactions or behavioral patterns like her brothers did, she couldn't really judge fairly. At the moment, though, the eldest Harrison offspring didn't care. They had hurt her brothers, and for that she would never, ever, forgive them, ever.

Today was the day in which Linda was sure that a showdown the likes of which were beyond even WWF standards would begin, and she had no doubt whom the winners would be.

Linda turned so that she had her back against the door and slid down it, ending up on the floor with her head leaned against the entrance to her house. It was not entirely the fact that today was the day of a total showdown (she would be sorry to miss it, she had to admit, it was sure to be a great one) that was bothering her. In fact, it wasn't even a factor in the issue that was festering in her heart like a bad wound, at least not a major one. No, it was something larger than that fact, so large it made even her college problems become mundane.

The fact that the Z-senshi had even dared to spy upon her family, _her_ family, was really what was appalling Linda. She felt like her privacy had been invaded, that she and her family were no longer safe in this world. This was a bad way to feel, she reflected, as it made her jumpy and paranoid, both things that were _not_ what she needed at this time of her life.

However, her brothers seemed to be okay, something that Linda was grateful to heaven for. If Jeff and Marc had showed even the slightest bit of anxiety due to the watch set by the adopted Son Pan, Linda vowed that she would have made them pay. She resolved that to herself that she would make them pay anyway, simply for neglecting her brothers and making them run away in the first place. Although, if they had not run away, she would never have met them in the first place. Amazing, she thought, that such a wonderful thing had come out of something so abominable. Perhaps bad things were only blessings in disguise, and one just had to look really, really, _really_ hard for them.

Linda shook her head bemusedly. She did not approve of the Z-senshi, especially after _that_ tactic (she shuddered and hugged herself), but she also had to be grateful to them, for giving her the greatest gift she had ever received in her life. Life really was complicated.

Still, she felt like her world was crashing around her, her safe sheltered world, thanks to the Z-senshi. They were the people who were trying to take her brothers away, and therefore two of her biggest supports in her life. They were even more supportive than her parents, and she would forever love them and be grateful to them for being in her family when she needed them most. And the Z-senshi was attempting to take them away.

When Jeff and Marc had told the family of the Z-senshi and the adventures they had embarked on together, Linda had been amazed and even a little skeptical. By then she had known them for approximately a year an a half, including the month before adoption, and she had known very well that Jeff and Marc did not joke about their lives and how much it affected them. Heck, they'd had problems just reliving it, a year and a half after the Betrayal! Linda could remember how agonizing it was to watch her brothers suffer, how their faces had darkened during the retelling of their tale, and how Marc had kept quiet as Jeff had taken charge, although haltingly.

_"Then, when the squirt had distracted that monster Cell, I charged up a powerful Kamehameha and shot it at him, finishing him off for the last time," the elder new Harrison told his audience. "The audience" consisted of a tearful Myna, a pale Jack with his arm around his wife, and a wide-eyed Linda. _

_Jeff had just completed a long narrative filled with impossible events told with the straight face of reality, as if he had actually experienced them. The wan, quiet face of Marc, as Linda glanced at him, seemed to echo that experience, even if she was skeptical, and it was with growing horror that she listened to Jeff's next segment of the story. _

_"It was after the Cell Games that our problems really began. Dad had come back with us, and Mom was so ecstatic…" Jeff trailed off with a faraway look in his black eyes, his haunted black eyes. It was a long moment before the tale was taken up again, and it was obviously with a huge effort at control that Jeff did so. _

_"They started ignoring us. Mom and Dad, that is. They would snap at us, tell us to do this or that, or just to go away and leave them alone. Worse, they would just not talk to us or look at us completely. It was awful. In the beginning, just after the Cell Games, the squirt and I were able to eat as much as we wanted without worry. But then they started taking away our food, feeding us less and less, until we practically were starving each and every day. Goten and I had to steal food from the refrigerator every night so that we wouldn't be so hungry all the time—" Linda's brother's voice broke off as great heaving sobs overtook him. _

_Linda had not missed the slip up in calling Marc "Goten", and neither had her parents, she noticed, but at the time she was far more concerned about Jeff, and Marc, too, who was already crying silently, tears crawling down his face. It was then that a deep-seated rage took hold of Linda at the Z-senshi, and this rage only built up more when Marc took up the narrative. _

_The younger Son brother told them that when the Z-senshi came to visit, the Brothers were not allowed to play with the other kids, or if they were allowed, not to associate with them too much. Such was the case that last day, and even as Marc thought about it, they _had _been "associating" with the kids too much by their biological parents' standards. Marc was sure that they would have been punished by getting water from Piccolo's waterfall and washing the clothes with it. _

_As said waterfall was a few leagues away, and the Son brothers were forbidden to use ki when they were punished, it would have been leg-tiring work for them, especially as they had not trained in forever. A year really did wonders if a person didn't stay in shape, and this was certainly the case with our beloved characters. This sort of thing had been going on for the whole year, Marc said, and Jeff's miserable nod seconded that declaration. _

Linda tightened her lips against the tears coming down her face as the memory faded away. She was going to do everything in her power, and not, to keep the Z-senshi away from her brothers, no matter what the consequences were. Even if she went to jail, died, or underwent some other negative task because of her resolve, Linda would not waver. That Z-senshi was going to stay away, and there was nothing they could do about that to make her decide any differently.

Still, Linda was glad that her parents were at work, so that they did not see her weakness. She was the eldest child and needed to stay strong, or seem that way at least, to keep up the family morale. It would not work if Myna and Jack saw her come close to crying, especially after she'd already done it once. She needed to be strong to help the others, so that everything would be all right in the end. And it _would_ be all right, she told herself firmly, wiping irritably at her eyes. It _would_.

Oh yes, there was really going to be a smack-down at Orange Star today, Linda mused, returning abruptly to worrying about the events to take place that day. However, she did not take into consideration a certain annoying battling belle, and although Linda was right about who the winners would be, she had no idea whom the participants of the showdown would be.

Indeed, today was the day the final strife between the Harrison Brothers and Satan Videl was going to begin.

:-:-:-:

For Marron, it was both a relief and a torture when her all-grade study hall rolled around. She had not seen any evidence that suggested that Marc and Jeff were acting out of character, but she was not assured, for perhaps they were saving their explosion for later. She could only hope that "later" was not in the study hall.

She was just sitting down in her usual seat, her back to Marc and his gang and her head down, when a voice shouted from behind her, "Hey Marron! I haven't finished teaching you about graphing inequalities yet!"

Marron's head snapped up and around so abruptly that she was afraid her neck would crack. Nevertheless, she was staring at Marc instead of her desk, and Marc was gesturing for her to come over to his side of the room, under the disapproving gaze of the faculty supervisor. Her hopes rising, Marron slowly gathered her math materials and walked unsteadily over to the free seat she normally occupied when tutoring with Marc. On the way, she studied the Harrison's face, but she garnered no clues from it, no even as she sat down. So she asked, hesitantly, before she opened her spiral,

"Aren't you mad at me?" She ducked her head after she asked this, so she missed it when Marc raised his eyebrow and just looked at her. The silence did grate on her nerves, but Marron stubbornly kept her head down, so that her emotions were not able to be seen and held against her. Finally, Marc spoke, and Marron's stomach plummeted as she heard him take breath.

"No." Marron's blue eyes shot to Marc's black ones when she fully registered his comment, but Marc was not finished.

"It wasn't you who did it, although I am sure that you are a member of the group that Pan 'spied' for," Marc used his fingers to indicate quotation marks where needed, "but I'm not as sure of that as much as I suspect Trunks of it. But anyway, that's not the point."

Marron's eyes widened at the piece of news that she had just gotten. He didn't think that she was as much a part of the Z-senshi as Trunks was? She felt troubled, but listened as Marc kept talking.

"The point is, _you_ weren't the one who was doing the spying, _Pan_ was. We've already, uh, _dealt_ with Pan in our own way," Marc chuckled sheepishly as Marron huffed in agreement, "but why should I be mad at you when you didn't do anything? Now, you may be wondering why I think Pan was spying for a group of people, of which you are a member. The only answer I have for that question is..."

Marron stared intensely at Marc as he took another breath. She noted, again, the strong resemblance to Goten that the Harrison had, and something jangled in the back of her head at a motion that Marc made, but Marron had no time to think on the subject more as Marc finished his earlier statement.

"Well, there's always a group of people spying on another group of people in the movies, right?" Marc shrugged, non-committal, with his face straight.

Needless to say, Marron face-faulted.

When Marron sat up again, recovering her seat from the floor, Marc said nothing but,

"All right, to graph an inequality you have to first..." as if nothing had happened. But it had, and Marron had new hope fluttering around in her chest. She wasn't entirely satisfied, for she had the more than sneaking suspicion that Marc knew more than he was letting on, but he wasn't mad at her, and neither was Jeff, as it turned out.

Jeff told her that she had a meeting to go to at the office, and she had been reassured many times that if Jeff Harrison was mad at someone, he did not tell them anything of importance to them for as long as he was angry with that person. Marron was set at ease with Jeff, and it was with a lighter heart that she passed the day, even as Videl was on the prowl.

:-:-:-:

It was the end of another Monday at OSH, and Jeff did not have any sports practices that he was obligated to be at according to school requirements that day. He still had a lacrosse stick in his hand, but it was being held like a weapon and not a piece of equipment as it actually was. He was holding it this way to fend off Videl, who was getting under his skin once again.

This time, however, he wasn't going to stand for it. He was now just waiting for Marc to arrive, for he had promised his brother long ago that if he was going to finally deal with the Devil, he would let Marc take some shots as well.

It was to Jeff's disapproval, though, when Marc was trailed by Pan, who had been hanging close by the Brothers all day whenever she could. It really wasn't that much of a bother, actually, especially as he knew that Pan was still hoping for forgiveness, but this was private business, not for strangers.

Nonetheless, it was a relief when Marc appeared, for Videl's flurry of attacks was really beginning to tell on his trusty lacrosse stick. So when Videl, next attacked, instead of just deflecting it, Jeff also countered. He delivered a wide smooth swing to Videl's side that sent her flying straight into Marc's arms. For his part, the youngest Harrison clamped onto Videl's arms gently enough so that she was completely paralyzed, but was not in pain. Jeff approved, even if he _did_ feel that Marc would be justified in inflicting harm upon Videl many times over. There would be plenty of time later for that, though. Plenty of time.

"Listen up, Satan Videl. I've had it with you and your games. My brother and I will meet you in the Murasimo Plaza Park in an hour to put an end to this feud. Come ready to fight, and bring a back-up fighter to take your place when you fall. Make sure that fighter actually has manners and knows how to fight properly, unlike you," Jeff commanded.

Videl's face contorted grotesquely at the double insult, but it morphed into a look of glee a moment later.

"Is this a challenge, Harrison? An honest to Kami martial arts challenge?" asked she. At Jeff's nod she smirked and added,

"You're on. I won't need the back-up fighter, though, but if you want to bring your brother to fight me," Videl motioned to Marc, whose eyes were narrowed with distaste, "you can. It won't matter to me; I can and will take you both on. Now let me go, so I can go home and change for our match," Videl ordered Marc.

The demi-Saiyan held onto Videl for a few minutes more, just to show her that he didn't take orders from her, then released her. Videl almost fell to the ground as she used her own muscles for standing, but she found her feet at the last minute and righted herself again, though not gracefully. She stumbled away from Marc and his narrowed eyes and Jeff with his lacrosse pole arm across the field to a clearing not far from them. This was obviously so that she could release her jet capsule, but the Harrisons had already moved on to someone else who was just as headstrong as she: Son Pan.

"Let me go with you," was the first thing out of Pan's mouth when they reached her. "That egocentric maniac needs to be taught a lesson."

Marc smiled crookedly. "You know, there are shorter phrases that describe her just as well. One of them starts with a 'b' and ends in 'tch'," he commented, airily.

Jeff shot his brother a warning look, but Pan was not fooled. The elder Harrison male would not let Pan get further, though, before he had his say.

"I agree, she does need to be taken down a peg or four," this was accompanied by an acquiescent snort from both Marc and Pan, which Jeff ignored, "But this is our business, not yours. You have no connection at all to us in this, so don't even try and invent one, Pan."

Pan closed her mouth with a snap and let Jeff continue.

"She's done nothing to you that would justify you wanting to come with us. She's done everything to us, so we are within reason to do this. You—"

Jeff was cut off by Marc, who said, "Basically what Jeff is trying to say is 'mind your own beeswax and leave us the HFIL alone.' Now goodbye and do your English homework!"

And with that, Marc and Jeff were gone. They had turned and strode off in the direction to Pan's right and disappeared around the corner so rapidly that she felt like she had blinked and missed them. Pan turned her head and followed the strange kis that belonged to Harrisons Jeff and Marc with her senses, then gyrated her whole body and walked in the direction she'd come from, leaving a field that had just minutes before been a battleground, occupied by the two titans of OSH. This field would never see these two Titans on it at the same time ever again, either, for in the Park would be the final Duel, and Jeff for one was determined to make sure it stuck in Videl's mind forever.

:-:-:-:

As for Trunks and Bra, Jeff and Marc had treated them initially a bit coldly, but they warmed up with Pan told them that those two had had no say in the Z-senshi's decision to send pan for the task of espionage. Still, the two Briefs had gotten a little less than friendly karma from those two, and had no doubt that Jeff and Marc had no appreciated the injustice done to them at all.

This was not what worried them the most, though, when Pan turned up ad said that Jeff and Marc were going to go to the Murasimo Plaza Park to have a fight with Videl. Pan said that she was absolutely going to go, even though Jeff and Marc had told her that it was none of her business. Trunks and Bra had to agree with Jeff and Marc, though, it really _was_ none of their business, but Pan sharply reminded them of something very important when they disagreed with her.

Satan Videlwas the daughter of Satan Hercule, and Hercule had taken the credit for both Gohan and Goten when they did not identify themselves as the saviors of the world. The Z-senshi hated the bumbling fool for that, and would not tolerate any smudges on the Lost Sons' good name. It was ironic that the Z-senshi were protecting Gohan and Goten now and not before, but it was one of their many ways of making it up to them, even though they were not there to witness the defense. Pan was an extremist when it came to the Satans, since she considered their very _existence_ to be a threat to Gohan and Goten's name.

As such, she did consider it her business that Jeff and Marc were fighting with Videl, for two reasons. One, it was Jeff and Marc that were fighting Videl, and those two were under the spotlight for possibly being Gohan and Goten, which was major. The second reason was that they were finally dealing with _Videl_ herself and her stupid assumption that because it was her father that beat Cell, she should be admired and worshiped above everybody else. True, almost everyone else treated her this way, but Pan hated her and what she stood for against Gohan and Goten.

Against this, Trunks and Bra stood no chance, and so they didn't make a move when she got up an hour later and walked out the door. They watched her go with sad eyes, knowing that Pan was walking into yet another situation that would cause the Harrisons to turn the cold shoulder toward her. However, Pan was legendary for her stubbornness, and she had presented a solid case for why she should go, and there was nothing they could do.

And so the stage was set, with the grand finale just waiting to begin.


	15. What Goes Up Must Come Down

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Harassment by other parties.

Pan was panting by the time she landed in Murasimo Plaza Park fifty minutes later. She'd gone as fast as she could have gone to keep up with the Harrisons, who lived quite a ways away from Capsule, and who had started out for the Park without her notice. The Park was even further from Capsule than the Harrison home, or what Pan assumed to be the Harrison home, and that was why she was in such straits then.

She had had no qualms about hiding her ki now, for they had both proved that they were not ki sensors, which then cleared away, or tried to, some of the craziness the Z-senshi had concerning them. Still, she could not forget the feeling she'd had the first day of school, when Jeff had walked toward here with that crackling aura that could only be that of ki being suppressed.

She had never felt it again that day, or the days afterwards, but she had never let it escape her mind. In fact, as she crept towards the still kis of the Harrison Brothers, the memory caused her to contemplate another theory, one that she should have thought of before, to be frank.

What if it was only one Lost Son in the area, not the both of them? What if the Son brothers had gotten separated somehow, and only Gohan was present with them in Japan? It could easily be Goten, too, Pan reflected, but she thought that Jeff was too old to be Goten. After all, Jeff had not actually _proved_ that he couldn't sense ki, only Marc had. And she had never actually seen _Jeff_ fight, so there was still some possibility there. Although she did have to admit that Marc still bothered her, especially upon reviewing the excellent spar she'd participated in with him. There was just something off about it, but Pan could not for the life of her put her finger on it. She just could _not_ figure it out, and she had been visited by those two strange voices again and again upon the subject, with the same message: **_STOP WORRYING!_**

She couldn't stop worrying about it, though, and continued to give herself headaches with the worrying and the two inner voices. Not a good combination; it was strong enough to beat two aspirin every four hours, Pan huffed. She stopped suddenly and unconsciously lowered her ki as she caught sight of a black-and-white blur heading in the same direction she was.

The black-and-white blur turned out to be who she thought it was: Videl. True to her announcement, Videl had not brought a second, and Pan would rather fight Cell in HFIL than admit she was glad about that. It was not just vindictiveness on her part towards the spawn of Satan (she smiled grimly at Vegeta's rather appropriate nickname for the Devil), but also worry on the part of the Harrison Brothers, specifically Jeff.

It _was_ Jeff Videl was fighting, wasn't it, and not Marc, like Jeff had tricked Pan into sparring? Marc was well able to take care of himself, but since Pan had not seen Jeff spar before, she was rather worried that he would not be able to do the same as his younger brother. Brothers did have different interests, after all, and sparring might just be one of them. Of course, Pan was forgetting one teeny little thing that she'd been told by Marc himself, and that was, quote, "Mostly I spar against my brother, who _is just as strong as I am, maybe a little stronger_."

:-:-:-:

The Harrison brothers, when Pan found them, were positioned a little west of the center of the park with its giant stone plaza and the crane splashing in the middle of the fountain situated in this huge square. They had their van with them, parked in the grass, and were leaning against the hood. Jeff had his hands in his pockets and was hunched over slightly, adopting a relaxed attitude. However, Pan knew that he was anything but relaxed, as was Marc, who had his own hands behind him on the hood of the car. Marc's head was bent back as if to look up at the sky, but Pan didn't think that he was actually doing that. He had been looking forward to this too much for her to believe that.

Pan looked around for a suitable hiding spot that would afford her a good view of the pending fight and yet keep her out of the way. She didn't find one that seemed likely to do both of these things, but she picked a tree that was close to the Harrison van and crept to it, unconsciously forgoing her ability to use ki in such a high-pressure situation such as this. She had never been in a fight against any super-evil villains, but she had been in enough spars and training drills with Vegeta and Goku, and even Piccolo, to instinctively lower her ki whenever she was in a "dangerous" predicament. So it was, but as Pan was doing this, she didn't notice the slight movement of Marc's head or the sudden twitch of Jeff's cheek. These signs of acknowledgement were gone in the next instant, and thus Pan saw nothing out of the ordinary when she settled herself in her tree's welcoming branches.

Then, from the corner that Pan herself had just come from to get to her tree, Videl appeared.

:-:-:-:

"Well, well, well, if it isn't Harrison," Videl drawled as she strolled up. Jeff and Marc greeted her stonily, especially as she added, "I was so sure that you were just leading me on, but I couldn't miss the opportunity. And look what I've got." She stopped and spread her hands out towards the Brothers, as if they were on display. "A fight, or two, on my hands." The "or two" statement was pronounced as if it were an afterthought, obviously as a jibe towards Marc as well as towards Jeff. Neither Jeff nor Marc moved, or even batted an eyelash. They only stared at Videl, clearly waiting for her to finish her pre-fight self-pumping ritual, but not showing signs of it.

Videl didn't seem to notice this, but she did start stretching, doing feats that made Pan roll her eyes. Kami, even in stretching Videl tried to show off! She really was a pathetic attention-seeker. Didn't she have anything else to do besides be so pathetic?

_Apparently not,_ she answered herself as Videl finished warming up. Jeff only stepped up and slid into a fighting stance, which Pan viewed with a critical eye. _Impressive, but then again, I expected no less. Not bad, Harrison._

Videl smirked and spread out her feet, lowering her center of gravity, and also moved her hands to spots in front of her face and behind her, curling them inward, like she was pretending her hands were sock puppets, but without socks (1). Her face lost the smirk and the cocky look, presenting an astonishing sight to Pan. Videl was seen as a girl who was committed and capable of handling herself. She looked much more human without that stupid annoying self-confident smirk on her face. Videl looked much more like a person with dreams, with hopes for the future, with a past, and it truly was amazing.

Jeff did not seem aware of the phenomenon that was happening right next to and behind him. He was focused on Videl, so much that his face was a mask of intense concentration. Suddenly Pan was sure that Jeff was going to win. She was so sure that she was actually willing to predict that Jeff was going to dominate this fight. It was just something about the way that Jeff stared his opponent down that told her that he was not intimidated, that he was going to fight and fight hard.

Videl did not have that same look, but she did look like she was going to give it her best, and she expected that she would win because she gave it her best. Of course, Pan reminded herself forcefully, Videl didn't usually fight against people who absolutely despised her, like Jeff, and so therefore she had no idea of what she was getting herself into. Oh, boy, did Videl not know what she was getting herself into. Pan grinned suddenly, ferociously. This was going to be good.

As soon as Jeff was settled, Videl charged.

:-:-:-:

Jeff blocked Videl's fist and countered, lightning-speed, with his own punch. He caught her cheek and sent her leaning away from him. It was only because he still had her fist clenched in his that Videl was not now on the ground, but as it was, she was pulled back straight into another punch, and this time Jeff did let her go.

Videl landed in a heap on the ground, but she didn't have long to remain that way. She rolled quickly out of the way of Jeff's stomp and swung her leg in an imitation of a split, trying to floor kick the middle Harrison. Jeff only jumped over her leg and landed lightly on the ground, but he jumped up again when Videl tried to grab him by the ankle. She almost succeeded, too, but Jeff was too fast for her and landed behind her this time. Turning slightly, Jeff leaned to the side and kicked out, forcing Videl, who had been in the middle of a handstand to get up off of the earth, back down on the ground. Videl gasped and gripped her ribs, but Jeff bore down on her, and she had to react now or get pulverized.

She brought her knees up and kicked with both of her feet, hoping to get Jeff straight in the face. Jeff only leaned back and punched at the same time, getting Videl's face again and knocking her head painfully against the hard dirt in the clearing that had been chosen for the fight.

Pan goggled as she watched Jeff go aboutbashing Videl into the dirt. He was so _good!_ He was better than Marc in some cases! Thinking of Marc, Pan glanced at him, expecting to see a look of satisfaction on his mobile face. She was puzzled to see a frown instead, as well as a knit between Marc's eyebrows. What was that for? Jeff was finally fighting Videl, and he was beating her into a pulp. What was wrong?

She shifted and dropped from her place in her tree, forgetting that she was not supposed to be there in the first place. She walked five steps over to Marc and turned to watch Jeff and Videl again before she asked, "What's with the frown? Jeff's winning right now, in case you didn't notice."

Marc's expression didn't change as he answered, "Yeah, but he's not faring so well against her. She's getting in more shots than she should be."

Pan looked over at the fighters and looked back at Marc. "_More _shots? How do you mean?"

Marc held out his hands to prevent Videl from falling onto him and pushed her back to the waiting Jeff. "You're much stronger than Videl, so you wouldn't understand," he said, still not taking his eyes off of the fighters. Pan's own forehead puckered, still not comprehending what Marc was talking about. She told him so, and finally Marc turned to her, his black eyes concentrated.

"Jeff's stronger than I am, so—Hey, get back in there!" Marc pushed Videl away from him again, catching his brother's eye as he did so. His eyes widened for a fraction of a second as Jeff looked at him, and when Jeff roundhouse-kicked Videl again, when Pan waited for him to continue, he didn't. He just folded his arms over his chest and leaned back again on the van, looking obstinate. Pan was baffled as to why Marc was suddenly not talking to her anymore.

_"Jeff's stronger than I am." _The line Marc had just said suddenly flashed across Pan's brain. Her own eyes widened and she stared at Marc, but Marc wasn't looking at her anymore. So she swung to see Jeff and Videl again, and watched with rising incredulity as he trapped Videl's arms and slammed her head with his own. He released her as she fell back, letting her smack up against a tree as she stumbled backwards, which in turn made her pitch forward and splat face-first straight onto one of the tree's roots.

Videl groaned in pain, but made no other noise to suggest she was in pain as she sat up. Pan winced at the sight Videl now made, for not only was she horribly bruised on the face, but her nose also looked broken, and blood came streaming out of her nostrils. However, her face was not the only one that was battered and beaten beyond recognition. Her arms sported three already blue bruises from being trapped in Jeff's arms before the tree incident, and Videl's knuckles had the bright red liquid of blood all over them, from trying to punch Jeff's face but only finding his hands. The legs of this stubborn fighter had only one bruise, but as Videl struggled to get up, Pan deduced that her ankles weren't feeling that great, or the soles of her feet.

Still, Videl settled down again and re-formed her stance. Jeff wasn't buying it, though, and stood still, studying his opponent with ebony eyes. He raised an eyebrow at the sight of Videl, and drew both eyebrows together upon hearing her erratic breathing. A faint look of concern appeared in his eyes, enough for Videl to growl at him.

"Oh, stop it, Videl. I know you're beaten, and you do, too," Jeff retorted sharply. Videl shook her head in denial, her black hair swinging wildly about her face as if to accentuate her point. Jeff sighed, a sharp explosion of breath, and simply Looked™ at Videl. "Videl, this is useless. You're beaten up so badly that I'm kicking myself for fighting you," he told her. Indeed, he did look like he regretted fighting her, which Pan just found strange. What was it with the Harrisons today? Why weren't they reacting the way they were supposed to?

"Just to make things easier, why don't you fight Pan instead?"

:-:-:-:

Pan froze. Did she just hear what she thought she'd just heard? She joined Videl in gaping at Jeff, although Marc did not appear to be perturbed.

"_What?_ Are you telling me to fight _her?_" They both shrieked, simultaneously pointing an accusing finger at the other girl. Videl's effect was spoiled, however, as her finger was shaking more than slightly, which was a sign that Jeff's suggestion was more than reasonable. However, Videl refused to accept the proposition, as did Pan. While Pan settled for looking incredulously at Jeff, Videl took it one step further.

"Are you afraid to fight me now, Harrison? Do you think I'm so weak that I can't keep up with you?" she demanded. Jeff just nodded, and Pan could see that he really _did_ think that she was took weak. Pan had to admit that Jeff was right, though. Videl, however, didn't seem to realize just how strong Jeff was, for she just kept on going.

"I don't need your pity, Harrison. I just want you to fight me!" she charged forward, only to be intercepted, once again, by a patient Jeff. This time, though, Jeff pulled her forward and locked his arms around her, preventing her from attacking him or doing anything anymore. He said to the shocked Videl, "It's okay, Videl. You don't have to constantly get in fights all the time just to keep up the Satan honor. You don't have to keep putting pressure on yourself just because you're the daughter of the champion, of Hercule Satan, the defeater of Cell. You don't have to constantly live in fear that your father doesn't love you, that he's ignoring you. You don't have to do the things that you do for your father, because, quite frankly, Hercule Satan doesn't deserve to have such a devoted kid. You don't have to live the life that you do now, you don't have to do any of that stuff.

"You don't, because you're not the person that everyone thinks that you are. You are really comfortable with fighting that much, but you do it because your dad does it. You do it to get attention from your dad, who seemingly ignores you and goes out with all these girlfriends. You do it because you love your dad, and you don't think he loves you, and when you think these kinds of things, you take out your anger, frustration, resentment, and all other negative emotions out on other people, mostly me, and then you get even more unhappy because the way you take out these emotions doesn't do you any good. You don't feel any better, and it's a vicious cycle that happens over and over and over again. Well, it's time to stop it. Stop fighting, Videl, and find something else to occupy your time, something that actually makes you happy."

Videl, by this time, was so utterly and completely shocked that she no longer tried to get out of Jeff's arms. She was staring at him instead, her blue eyes wide. Finally, she stammered, "W-where did _that_ come from?"

Jeff smiled. "I've been watching you, Videl. I've seen you look unhappy whenever you hear that your father has gone out with yet another woman, or when you learn that someone wants to challenge you because you're the daughter of Hercule Satan. You can't completely hide your emotions, young Miss Satan, and I can see right through the facade that you put on whenever your father is mentioned. It's not hard to do that," Jeff added, as Videl started to tear up, "and it's hard to fight you when I think about your problems, and even harder when I compare them to mine. I figure that you bugging me is not so bad when I see you feeling miserable, even though it's really irritating when you constantly hound me for a fight."

Videl was crying now, tears spilling from her crystal blue eyes. She ducked her head at Jeff's last comment and sniffled out, "I'm sorry I did that to you. You were the only one who I hadn't fought yet, and it rankled me that I hadn't, that there was still someone out there that I didn't know the exact strengths and weaknesses of. See, if I knew the strengths and weaknesses of everyone at my school, then I could help my dad in recruiting for his dojo, even though he doesn't seem to care who comes or who doesn't. I—I just wanted to get my dad's attention, just once, or twice, so that I'd know that he still cared about me, still knew I was alive."

Jeff interrupted and said, "You don't have to explain yourself to me. 'Course, it would be nice to know why, but it doesn't really matter to me." Videl sniffed again and nodded. Jeff kept his arms clasped around her for a while longer, then let them fall as Videl drew away. She turned away from him and Marc and Pan, wiping her eyes to chase away the tears and hopefully get some composure. It took several minutes, but finally Videl was reasonably calm, enough to say,

"Again, I'm really sorry for constantly persecuting you, Harr—Jeff," she corrected herself. Jeff smiled again, but said once more, "It's fine. I do think that," he continued, "when you get home, you talk to your dad about this attention problem. It could be that your dad thinks that going out with other women, the fame, the luxury, and the other things that goes with fame, pleases you, and that you actually like this. If it isn't, though, then there's nothing I can do for you except suggest that you get out of there, immediately."

Videl had started crying again, but this time she was not as hysterical. "Do you really think that my dad's doing those things for me? _For me?_ The daughter that he's been ignoring ever since the Cell Games—"

_"Yes," _Jeff told her. Videl swiped inefficiently at her tears again, but they continued to pour down like no tomorrow. "I believe that he'll listen to you, that he'll change his lifestyle for you. Just talk to him and see how it goes, okay?" the elder Brother Harrison continued. Videl nodded, once more trying to stop crying, and turned to go, limping as she did. She stopped at the tree she'd been knocked up against and turned around again to say, "Thanks."

Videl quickly turned and hobbled off, leaving a waving Jeff, a contemplative Marc, and a bewildered Pan behind her. As soon as she was gone, Jeff suddenly stretched, bringing both Marc and Pan out of their reveries.

"Well, that went well," he remarked, finishing his stretching. Marc snorted, "Yeah. You did just ruin my image of a jerkwad Videl forever just now. I happened to like thinking of her that way."

Jeff chuckled and slapped his brother on the shoulder, retorting sarcastically, "Poor you. Whenever is big bad Jeff going to stop tormenting you and your images?"

"Yeah, when?" Marc responded, warming up to the challenge.

"Never, baby bro," Jeff declared. Marc deflated, both from Jeff's answer and being called _baby bro_. "Now, on to Pan." Both of the Brothers targeted and locked onto Pan, who looked alarmed at the sudden attention. "What the HFIL are you doing here? I expressly forbade you to come here, and yet here you are."

Pan responded eloquently, "Uh...?"

Jeff folded his arms over his chest, as Marc had done already, and raised his eyebrow. "I'm waiting."

"Uh...because... I wanted to hang out with you...?" Pan stammered. Jeff shook his head pityingly while Marc Looked™ at her, as if to say, _"Riiiiight."_

"Okay, fine. I wanted to see you fight her, beat her into a bloody pulp," Pan proclaimed, giving in.

"And now that you have seen my brother beat Videl into a 'bloody pulp', are you satisfied? Will you go away now?" Marc questioned challengingly. Pan nodded, reluctantly.

"Good. Don't ever follow us anywhere again, even if you believe our lives to be in danger. Just don't invade our privacy anymore, for any reason, any time, any place, any anything. Do you understand, Son Pan?" Jeff demanded. Pan was struck by the usage of her full name, and she snapped her head up to look into Jeff's serious eyes.

"Do. You. Understand?" he repeated, refusing to let go of her gaze. Pan nodded, hurt, and looked down the next instant. Jeff sighed and ran a hand through his hair, while Marc continued to scowl at the human Son.

"I would have thought we taught you respect for our privacy with that spar, but apparently we didn't. You're the judge here, though, so I ask you, did we not say that we liked our privacy and would appreciate it if we were left alone? Huh? Answer me, Pan, please. This is important," Jeff pleaded, causing Pan to look up with a blaze of fire in her eyes.

"Why? Why is it so important that I not invade your privacy? Why the HFIL did you overreact so much when I showed up at Mount Meko to check up on you guys? I was just trying to find out something from you two that I wasn't sure I was going to get from you two personally, and, and, and I get beaten up for it! Tell me why it's so important for you two to be so mysterious and unhelpful about your past! Tell me!" Hot tears were beginning to make themselves known to Pan's eyes, and with a growl of exasperation she dashed them away, causing Marc to comment sarcastically,

"What is this, a tear festival?"

Jeff shot a look at Marc and said sharply, "Shut up, Marc. I realize you're angry, but this is no reason to take it out on Pan. She has a good point and she deserves to know why we're shunning her when she's done nothing to us at all."

"Besides spying on us, you mean," Marc muttered, but he subsided under another glare from Jeff. Pan was confused, her emotions changing as rapidly as the wind on a hot summer day, and she felt weird that she was the reason that the Harrison Brothers were arguing right now. It was extremely rare for the Brothers to argue; in fact this was the first time she'd ever heard them like this. It just wasn't right, and Pan found herself saying something she'd never thought she'd say.

"Forget it, guys. It doesn't matter."

:-:-:-:

Both the Brothers looked up at her. "Are you sure?" Jeff asked. "We could tell you, right now." Pan shook her head, repeating her earlier statement. Marc looked at her carefully, but Pan just turned and started through the Park, moodily jumping into the trees after she had passed out of sight of the Brothers. She kept a sense on their ki, monitoring them until they were out of the Park, then took to the skies, flying home in a sunset-filled sky.

Jeff and Marc looked after the moody fighter, then at each other, each asking the other, _What was _that_ all about?_ They both shrugged in answer, then stared after Pan again until she passed out of their sight. They looked after her some more, then turned to each other again and took up their everyday role.

"Well, that's over with," Jeff started. Marc added, "Yeah. So what do we do now? Do we tell her?"

"No. We have a spar."

"What!"

"I just got warmed up with Videl. You think I'm going to miss out on an opportunity to have a proper fight? Besides, you need to get rid of that anger of yours."

"...Oh, yeah. What if I don't want to fight?"

"Too bad," Jeff responded, clapping Marc on the shoulder again. "Prepare to be beaten into a bloody pulp!"

"I thought you told Videl that she didn't have to fight in order to take out her negative emotions?"

"Videl doesn't like to fight. _You_ do."

"...You've got a point," Marc admitted, a ferocious grin spreading across his face. Jeff grinned in turn and fairly ran to the van, shouting that it was his turn now. Marc sped after him, yelling that it was _his_ turn still; it wasn't yet six o' clock. So life returned to normal, but very important questions would be asked later in the Harrison household after Jeff narrowly won over Marc in their latest spar.

:-:-:-:

"Jeff?" Marc asked, his gaze trained on his homework, the newest English essay on Erin's Glass by Remi Massistcher (2).

"Hmm?" Jeff returned.

"Did you really feel sympathy for Videl? For her plight, I mean, what you were talking about earlier," Marc answered, trying to articulate his thoughts. He gave up and just waited for Jeff's response, which was not long in coming.

"Yeah. I would get really annoyed by her constant pecking, enough to actually take her up on one of those fights, and then I would look up and see such a sad look on her face that I just couldn't fight her," he commented. He looked over at Marc, who was still fiddling with his essay. "What about you, bro? Did you really hate her?"

Marc glanced up at Jeff and nodded. "Yeah. I hated her for always harassing you, for disrupting everything all the time just to try to get you to fight, even when you said that you had a no-fighting-anyone-besides-my-brother policy. I hated it, but I never knew why she did it. I thought it was because she didn't like you, that she thought you were strange, and I didn't like thinking that."

"Mm. I can understand why. I would hate Videl too, if I had thought that. Lucky for me, you and I are different people, sometimes."

"Sometimes, indeed," Marc laughed humorlessly. "Still... It's kind of hard to get over hating her straight away, even though I know why she kept harassing you. I don't think I ever will stop hating her."

"I don't expect you to. Time will heal all wounds, though, even psychological ones," Jeff commented. Marc burst out into silent chuckles at Jeff's usage of such a cliche, but Jeff pretended to be confused about it, which only made Marc laugh harder. Jeff smiled affectionately, and after a while, Marc calmed down enough to stop laughing long enough to ask another question.

"I noticed that after you stopped fighting you, you weren't angry anymore. Why is that? Usually when you're mad, you fight for longer than ten minutes," Marc remarked, grimacing. Jeff grinned.

"Well, bro, usually when I get mad, it's because I'm usually facing some evil super-villain who wants to destroy the Earth, that's all," he retorted, sending Marc into another brief round of laughter. "No, really, it's because Videl was so weak that it was just not worth it. I found my anger disappearing rapidly, so by the time I knocked her against that tree, it was gone, and concern for her well-being replaced it. She _is _only human, after all, so I couldn't fight her for very long or I would have pushed her beyond her limit. You know that," Jeff told his brother.

Marc nodded, but he couldn't help but whine just a little bit, "Still, couldn't you have made the fight just a _teeny_ bit longer?"

Jeff guffawed and shook his head. Marc pretended to be sad for a while, ducking his head and frowning, as if he was going to older Harrison just shook his head again, so Marc grinned instead, garnering more chuckles from Jeff as a Brothers returned to their homework and the atmosphere lapsed back to its relaxed state, until Marc ventured forth another question, one that was a little more tense than the last one.

"Are you really going to tell her why we hate having our privacy invaded?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (1) It's confusing, I know. Just think of when you put socks over your hands and you pretend that those socks have faces and are puppets, and think of the way the hand is positioned. That's the way Videl's hands are.
> 
> 2) Erin's Glass is my creation. Mine! Do not borrow without my permission, or Remi Massistcher, the author of this made-up book. She's mine too! (Glomps creations possessively)


	16. Swimming in a Sea of Memories

Chichi wasn't doing anything that day.

Well, she _was_ sitting with an apron strapped around her waist and a dishcloth in her hands in her bright kitchen, looking out of the window, but that didn't count as doing _anything_, especially compared to the usually bustling figure that the Son matron was. Never let it be said that she was a slacker…

Yet there she was, sitting and doing nothing, her head turned to the window as if she was watching the tree outside of her home dance with the wind. Her eyes held a far-away emotion in them, however, meaning that she wasn't appreciating the dance the tree was putting on for her. Instead, she was reflecting upon the loneliness and the pain that her sons had effected when they ran away.

How this was brought about is a simple tale to tell. Chichi was washing the dishes, as normal, after the semi-huge breakfast she'd cooked for her family (it was semi-huge because she didn't have to cook so much like she'd had to when she'd had Goten, Gohan, and Goku in her house). She'd been humming contentedly, having already seen Pan and Goku off, Pan to school, and Goku to Kame Island to see Krillin. She'd waved to them as they had shot into the air, called for them to have a good day.

It was as she remembered their farewells that the loneliness had started. She just had such a sudden sense of dislocation that she'd almost dropped the plate she was cleaning. She'd rescued it in time, but the gaping hole in her heart was still there, and did not disappear as she put the plate down safely in the sink.

_Gohan… Goten… _Chichi lifted one hand from her lap and gripped the sink rim as waves of loneliness suddenly came over her, bringing with them memories of Gohan and Goten when they were young. As she remembered them, she suddenly realized that her two sons had never really had a normal life, even when they were not fighting.

When they weren't fighting, she had constantly been after them to study, study, and study. She'd never let them play games appropriate for children their age, she'd never let them act like children, but adults, and she had never, ever, even hugged them after they had gone to Kame Island for the first time. Before that she had constantly hugged them, kissed them, and everything else that mothers would do for their toddlers.

That had been the time that she and they had started to drift apart from one another. They hadn't existed in quite the same harmony anymore, and Chichi had been forced to stand by and watch them grow into warriors before her very eyes, exactly as she had not wished them to. She had grown to understand them less and less, until they were complete strangers to her, although wearing the faces of her two children.

Such was the case after the Cell Games.

Gohan and Goten had come back from those horrendous "Games" so changed and grown up that Chichi had barely recognized them. She had hated herself for not doing so, and this hate grew to be so much that she could no longer look at her sons, let alone bear their company. She had grown snappish, curt, and eager, perhaps a little to eager, to get her sons out of her sight and her presence.

It grew so that she even fed them miniscule amounts of food that they couldn't handle to spend as little time with them as possible, and then when they were finished speedily, sent them out of the room. However, it never worked, for even when they were gone, Chichi always found herself remembering their haunted eyes…

At least Goku had not been like that. It was the worst thing in the world to have her sons be traumatically affected by the Cell Games (even more than they had been affected by the other events before that), but to have her mate join them…. Thank the universes that he had not been. It had been his ever-present cheerfulness that had saved her more than once during that long year after the Cell Games, never mind the fact that the years after that had been much longer and much more painful, in some ways.

As Goku had been as goofy as always, compared to the unusual somber natures of Gohan and Goten, Chichi had begun to prefer her husband's company over her sons'. As such the situation only became worse, with both she and Goku snapping at Goten and Gohan to get out of the room to get rid of the gloom that always settled over the room when they were there.

Chichi realized that that gloom had been her fault, hers and Goku's. If they had spent time with those two, given them the care and attention that they so obviously needed, then those shadowed and dulled eyes would have become lively again, and none of this would have happened.

Someone sobbed nearby, releasing a heart-wrenching wail into the air as Chichi sat in her chair, feeling numb. It took her a few seconds to realize that that someone was she; she had her hands pressed to her mouth and her body was shaking. She wondered detachedly where all this emotion had come from, but the sadness and the loneliness and the _pain_ crashed down on her a few seconds later, and she was no longer detached. She cried her heart and soul out for the two of her flesh and blood who were not there any longer but should be, should have spent the last seven years with them in perfect happiness and harmony.

The two months after the Son brothers ran away, the start of the Lost Years after Cell, were empty as devoid of all meaning. Even Goku couldn't save Chichi from the constant fits of depression that overtook her periodically. Goku himself seemed to be subdued, which did not help his mate at all. She had often wished he would just go away and leave her alone, then panic and retract her wish quickly, in case any Kaios were near and decided to grant that wish.

The discovery of Pan, a wretched ten-year-old orphan with tangled long black hair, a trace of stubborn wildness in her face, and dark violet eyes containing the same expression her face did, at first did nothing to ease Chichi's emotional state of affairs. Chichi even remembered feeling resentful toward Pan at one point for being so woebegone and needy. However, this faded as time wore on, for Chichi found that she actually enjoyed being needed, depended on, as she had not been for a long time, not by Gohan, Goten, or even Goku. Pan had been a case of SNWBL, or Seriously Needing and Wanting to Be Loved, although she'd had her contact, shyness, and talking problems in the beginning.

The child had flinched every time Chichi touched her or if Goku even appeared for a single moment in the same room. Pan still habitually hesitated sometimes when she approached Goku or vice versa, but she always burst forward and smiled up at Goku, except if she was in one of her Perfunctory-Man-Slaughter moods, as Chichi called them (and Goku, once he learned what "perfunctory" meant).

Shyness, also, and talking, had been difficulties for Pan. Pan had been more than somewhat hesitant to come out and ask her new parents for anything, going to a length of days and days before asking about something (either through her own sort of sign language or words, later). This was a serious conflict sometimes, and Chichi had found herself telling Pan over and over again that "it's okay to ask me for something, sweetie, when you want it. It doesn't always mean you're going to get it, but it's okay."

Chichi had been scrupulously honest with the young child throughout the whole first year of her stay, and the second, and the third, and then more so in the fourth and fifth years as Pan grew up. She'd told Pan less about herself and the G brothers in the first two years, but when Pan hit thirteen and was finally comfortable with them, they had informed her about Gohan and Goten. The story was said in little bits and pieces, to let Pan absorb it all, but they had told her, and nothing had changed.

Of course, Pan had opened up a bit more after that, and they were a little closer than they probably would have been without the knowledge of the Go brothers, but other than that, nothing.

They had been afraid, though, that Pan would close up again if they recounted the story, but once they stared, they couldn't stop. Pan herself had demanded more about the Sons pre-Cell, and the year post-Cell, and her parents had not had the heart to not tell her. They narrated it to her even as they saw disgust, hurt, and incredulity in her eyes, even as their souls were ripped apart and put back together only to be taken apart again, even as the pain revisited and caused them to choke up several times.

Pan had seemed to shut down the night she had heard about the events surrounding the infamous loss of the Sons, but the next morning she had hugged Chichi and Goku as ferociously as ever. Chichi still could remember the enormous relief she'd felt that morning, the smile that had broken out on her face, and the sensation that she had not smiled in ages, which had been true at the time.

Even as she looked back on the memories of raising Pan, especially when Pan had first appeared, Chichi was faintly aware of the feeling of there still being a ragged hole in her heart. This hole still caused her pain and slight depression whenever she thought of whom used to occupy that part. No, not used to. The Son brothers still had that piece; they just hadn't given it back yet. Hopefully they hadn't lost it and still had it, so that she could give it to them again if they would accept it.

Chichi's tears continued to flow, but with those last thoughts she was able to get up and return to the dish that was patiently waiting for her. She picked it up, wiped her eyes on her apron, and placed her hand with the dishcloth on the plate before her.

She would have to ask Goku that evening if he, too, still felt pain in his heart as she did at the prospect that Gohan and Goten still didn't want to come back. They would probably never come back, even though they had been and were so close by on the outskirts of Orange Star City, and yet so far away.

:-:-:-:

Trunks, Bra, and Marron were all miserably sitting around the table in the private Capsule kitchen/living room area when Pan stormed in, a black scowl on her face. They all looked up as she stomped heavily over, but made no sound as she plopped tiredly into the chair next to Bra. Without meeting their gazes, Pan growled,

"Yes, they found me out. Yes, they hated me. Yes, they told me off. And yes, I deserved it. I _know_."

Silence reigned as Pan pulled her backpack out from under the table and unzipped it. She furiously rummaged in its contents for her history homework, ripped that out, grabbed one of Bra's pens, pushed away the backpack, and started to work on the history. She never looked up to see the blank looks on her friends' faces, but she did hear scribbling start up around her after a few minutes. She sighed with relief inwardly and kept on working, even though what she really wanted to do was run screaming all the way home, flop onto her bed, and just plain cry.

It was like this for the next few minutes, until Bra passed her a piece of paper with the words,

_"Tell us exactly what happened. Not here, though, somewhere else. Mom's going to be coming in here in a minute." _

It was in Trunks' scrawl, so Pan looked at him and nodded. Trunks jerked his own head and bent over again, just as Bulma came bustling in.

"There you are, Pan! We've been looking for you. Chichi called fifteen minutes ago to tell me to tell you that you're going to have to stay over tonight, because she just heard on the television that there's going to be thunder and lightning. We don't want you flying home in that, now do we?" Bulma tsked. "I just hope that she'll be okay all by herself until Goku arrives."

Pan nodded, putting a cheerful mask in her face for the person she considered to be a third mother. As soon as Bulma left, she let it drop, and her head too, onto the table.

"Ugh. I feel so beaten all of a sudden," she remarked. She did. All of her anger had just suddenly departed (which was weird, because usually she only stopped being angry if she worked it out during extensive martial arts kata) and left her feeling tired, bruised, and heavy. She'd done nothing but go see the fight between Jeff and Videl, and all the events in between, but she still felt world-weary and like her bones were made of lead.

"Why?"

Pan raised her head to stare straight into Marron's blue eyes. "I don't know. Maybe it's because the Harrisons are disappointed in me."

"Not here," Trunks hissed, looking around at the robots coming in and out of the kitchen.

"Oh, right," said Marron sheepishly, ducking her head. Bra suddenly stretched and said, loudly, "All of a sudden I don't feel like working at in the kitchen anymore. Anyone want to work in my room with me?"

"Sure," chorused the rest. They all packed up, Pan shooting a tortured look at Bra, who only shrugged. Marron and Trunks noticed the look, but they were not fooled. Pan _needed_ to tell them what happened. It was in her movements and her rapidly dispersed anger, replaced by lethargy, that told them of her need, and they were determined not to let their friend suffer like they had Gohan and Goten.

Trunks pushed the thoughts away and strode through the halls, following his sister into the elevator that would take them to the bedroom floor.

They arrived speedily three minutes later, stepping off and rushing to Bra's room so that they could lay down their things and talk. They made it to the door, waited not-so-patiently as Bra opened the keypad door, and lunged in, Pan included. Bra locked the door behind her and turned to watch her friends and brother get settled in comfortable places in her room. She saw Pan on the bed, where everyone could see her, Trunks sitting at her desk but with the chair turned around so that he could watch Pan, and Marron spread out on the floor, her papers out in front of her.

Bra stalked over to the couch that no one had taken and sat daintily on it, fixing her aquamarine eyes on Pan as Trunks had already set his violet, and Marron with her blue, and waited for the show to begin.

"Okay," Pan started. She told them what happened, starting with first her assumptions about how it could be only Gohan that was with the Harrisons, not both Gohan and Goten, and ending with her moody exit from Murasimo Plaza Park, leaving the two Harrisons Brothers behind. Trunks had an outraged look on his face when she was finished, mixed in with a little hope. Bra and Marron both had thoughtful expressions, also with hope in them.

Pan found the hope in her friends' countenances to be superfluous. She had no idea why she was being so cynical, but she just thought that it was a waste of time to hope that Jeff and Marc were Gohan and Goten. They'd thwarted all of their hopes so far; how was this time going to be any different? It was only going to hurt more if she hoped and then it turned out that it wasn't true. However, she couldn't bring herself to tell her friends this, much as she knew it was probably the right thing to do.

Predictably, it was Trunks who first broke the silence not long after Pan stopped speaking.

"Why didn't you let them tell you about Mount Meko? That could have told us if they were Gohan and Goten!"

"I know that, Trunks," Pan began. She gave up, though, after she caught a glimpse of the angry fire in Trunks' eyes, and shook her head instead. Trunks made an angry noise and settled back into his chair, crossing his arms. Pan just sighed at him and turned to Bra when the other girl indicated that she wanted to speak.

"You said that Marc told you Jeff was stronger than him. How much stronger do you think he is?" she asked. "He may know how to use ki but didn't because he was fighting Videl."

Pan sat back. "I really wasn't able to tell. It's not really a good measure of strength when you fight someone so much weaker than you are and just fairly toss the weakling about," she commented. There was something niggling insistently at the back of her brain, but she ignored it. That was going to come back and haunt her later, she knew, but she also knew that she wasn't going to know what it was until the idea positively just slapped her in the face, whenever that was.

So she went on, saying, "I bet if we caught them sparring one time we'd know." She missed the Looks™ she was receiving from the others; she was too deep in thought, chewing absently on her bottom lip. "On the other hand, I don't know exactly where they live, and I don't know the kis of the other Harrisons. I didn't pay them any attention," she protested, fending off the others', especially Trunks', exasperated looks. "I was more concerned about Jeff and Marc. You would have done the same thing in my spot, you three," she pointed out defensively.

Bra, Marron, and Trunks nodded, the last one a bit more reluctantly than Bra and Marron. Pan uncrossed her arms and shifted so that she was in a more comfortable position on Bra's bed. Marron spoke up for the first time after hearing Pan's tale.

"Could Jeff be Goten instead of Gohan? We know that Marc is out of the picture," she remarked. Pan shook her head.

"No, he's a year older than Goten, like Gohan," she replied.

"But what if he skipped a grade? They're both smart enough to do that," Marron pressed on.

Bra quipped, "Skip three grades." When Marron looked at her, she elaborated. "They're both smart enough to skip three grades, if they wanted to." Trunks nodded agreement, his eyes losing a little bit of their fire, but not much.

Pan was interested. "Really? Mom and Dad told me that Gohan and Goten were really smart, but I didn't think it was to that extent."

"Oh yeah, easily," Trunks answered. His face took on a far-away light, one that Pan had never seen before. Really, they didn't talk about Gohan and Goten often.

"They used to make me feel stupid whenever they talked about their studies. Then I'd get home and discover that what they'd been talking about was the topic of discussion for the dad, and I'd feel like a slacker," Trunks said. He had been home-schooled the same as Gohan and Goten, only at Capsule by tutors and Bulma instead of Chichi. "I hated to feel either way, so I would study and study and study. I never did manage to surpass them, but once or twice I could actually understand what Gohan was telling Goten. It was only seldom, though, and I felt so elated afterwards. It never lasted long, though. The next day they would have lost me again within five minutes of talking."

Pan listened intently, noticing the underlying wistful note in her friends' voice. She knew that Trunks had been very attached to Gohan and Goten, and had been devastated when they ran away. Out of all the second generation Z-senshi, the future Saiyan no Ouji of an extinct race had been hit the hardest. Pan had heard the stories of Trunks yelling at his parents and the Sons that it was their fault the G brothers had run away, and that he was never going to speak to them again. He was going to run away himself, and find them all _by_ himself!

Tragically, nothing had come of it. Vegeta and Bulma had restrained Trunks from going after them and had dealt with his temper and grief in their own ways. Bulma had locked him in his room until he had calmed down sufficiently for them to explain the situation, and then Vegeta had taken his son with him into the G-dome to his mate's protests. At the time it had made Trunks come close to hating his parents, but he was more understanding of the treatment now. They had done it so as not to lose him when the Sons had already lost Gohan and Goten, and also because his behavior was irrational, if understandable.

"At fighting, though, I was equal to them. We had all been trained by Piccolo at the same time, although my father refused let Goku train me afterwards. Bra didn't train at all, although she could have started after Frieza had been beaten."

Pan looked quickly at Bra, who looked to be just as enthralled by the story as both Pan and Marron were.

"Gohan offered to teach her, even though he was still afraid of my father at that time."

Pan gaped. Gohan had been afraid of Vegeta? Her parents hadn't told her that! She listened more attentively than before after that.

Trunks was absorbed in the memories. He only paid the slightest attention to the people around him, thinking only about how sweet life had been with the G brothers, even the bad parts, especially compared to this half-life now. It was a half-life; ever since they had left, Trunks had felt incomplete, insecure, and small, as if Gohan and Goten had been two parts of his soul. He still felt that way, and looked forward to the day when they got back so that he wouldn't ever have to feel this way again. Even if he felt stupid again, even if he felt as if he were a slacker, he'd feel much more alive, instead of having this empty feeling in his heart that ached and yearned for someone or something to fill it with.

"My father found out and told Gohan," he said, shaking his quick internal thoughts, "in no uncertain terms was he, the first son of that third-class baka Kakkarot, going to train my sister. In fact, Bra wasn't going to train at all. The battlefield was really no place for females, although they were welcome to be any other job other than that of a warrior." Trunks came out of his reverie with a rueful snort. "Obviously he's changed his mind since then."

Silence greeted him, but Trunks didn't mind as he returned to his reminiscent stupor. He _did_ mind when a clap of thunder boomed outside, starling not only him but also the other three inhabitants of the room with him. He winced and placed his hands over his ringing ears, even as lightning flashed again, illuminating the dark room brilliantly for a split-second, and thunder followed shortly after. Bra ad already done the same when the first thunder boom had sounded.

Marron felt pity for her demi-Saiyan friends, whose super-sensitive ears and other senses must be being tortured right now. She wondered if Gohan and Goten were the same way, and if one of them was Jeff, if he was all right.

She hesitated to write Marc out of the picture, but if Pan said he didn't know how to sense ki, then he couldn't be either of them. Once you learned how to sense ki, you never forgot it. the feeling of the living earth, the billions and billions of energies everywhere, was not a feeling squashed easily, if at all. Still, Marron couldn't shake the feeling that there was something they were overlooking, something that would piece the whole puzzle together. But what?

Marron jerked back from the hand that waved in front of her face. "Hello, Marron? We're tired of the thunderstorm, so we're going to go downstairs and in the process get some food. Want to come with?" Bra asked as Marron blinked.

Marron looked up at her and responded, "Sure." She accepted Bra's hand and used it to help lever herself off of the floor. Bra hung on and towed her out of the door to the elevator, where Trunks and Pan were waiting for it already.

If it were just Jeff who was one of the Lost Sons, how was it that Marc looked so much like him then? And again, why was it that Marc reminded her so much of an older Goten?


	17. Sinking Up and Rising Down

Myna always did like tea, even though it contained far more caffeine than coffee and didn't exactly help her to go to sleep before bed, when she normally drank it. lately, though, she had been brewing and drinking her favorite tea—Lipton black—after she got home from work in the scant hour before Jack and the kids came home. It was the stress of having to worry about the Z-senshi that drove the medium tall, stocky woman to such a change in her routine. Now she didn't drink tea before bed anymore, knowing that too much caffeine in one day would do her no good, and she did sleep more at night.

Myna Harrison was not the typical American, not that there was any such thing as a "typical American." She was only an inch shorter than her five-foot-eight-inches husband and proud of it. It was her black hair that had been passed on to Linda, though Myna's was ear-length and curled at the ends. Myna's eyes were a clear gray-blue that always sparkled even if their owner was not. She had a smallish nose that she never paid any attention to and a lopsided mouth that often produced a smile just as asymmetrical. She wore sensible clothes but was far from that, being a hopeless romantic above all else. That was what Jack found to be so charming about his wife, although that was not the only thing he appreciated about her.

Myna sighed as she sipped her tea. It calmed her immediately; all of the stress from her workday drained away, leaving only a tired relaxation in its wake.

However, this tired relaxation was enough for Myna to start contemplating the situation at hand, the very reason that she had started drinking tea straight after she came home. Myna hoped that the circumstances wasn't going to last much longer; she wasn't sure how much more she could take of this. What would happen were she pushed beyond her limit, even she didn't know.

She had never been in something like this before in her life, and would greatly appreciate it if she never were again. She knew that the other families really should know that Jeff and Marc were indeed Gohan and Goten, but she couldn't bring herself to tell them, not after what they had done to her children.

When Gohan and Goten had appeared on their doorstep, Myna had been nothing less than horrified by the state she and jack had found them in. Both of them were skinny, skinnier than they should be at their age, and were in the possession of hollow, haunted eyes.

On Goten, the smaller of the two, there was a thick crude bandage over one knee, which unveiled a gash so deep that Myna had had to stifle a gasp upon seeing it. Jack, who was part of a doctor family but not officially one himself, had quickly taken over, cleaning, sterilizing, and re-bandaging the knee properly. Goten had not made a single sound, though at the time Myna had been sure that it hurt him.

Gohan had explained only that Goten had cut himself with a big knife and refused to tell anything other than that until his brother was seen after. Myna had insisted that they stay, and Linda, although reluctantly, had shown them the room where they would stay for the next month.

When Linda had come down Jack had told her that although these two had come along and needed serious attention, Myna and Jack were not going to neglect her. Their daughter had cheered up after that, and had greeted the haggard boys the next morning with all of her usual fervor, something myna had been heartened to see. Jack had always been a perceptive person.

The same day Gohan and Goten had told them their names and greeted them in the politest Japanese manner Myna had ever encountered. She had wondered at the time whom had raised these kids to be se polite and then had thrown them out as if they were trash and weren't good for anything. Myna just could not understand people like that, people who saw children as burdens only, and not living beings with feelings which would one day affect the future of the world.

The next month had been spent in getting to know the children as Goten's badly slashed knee slowly healed. None of them had pushed the children to tell them about their past, or even talked about it; they all figured that the Son brothers would tell them in their own time. Instead they talked of other things, such as Jack's grandmother, who was coming to the month after next, in August, for her grandson's birthday.

Goten had shyly expressed a desire to know about her, and Jack was happy to tell him and his silent brother how the eighty-five-year-old woman loved to play her harmonica every year for Jack's, Myna's, and Linda's birthdays, but would not play it for her own self. Jack had to do that for her, not that Luann insisted upon it anyway. Still, Jack had to upload the family tradition, especially since no one else would do it. Luann wasn't exactly popular in their family.

Along the way, Myna had found herself to be falling in love with them. She felt as if her world was cracked if she saw either of the Sons to be unhappy, the same as she felt if Linda was out of sorts. Luckily, her daughter was just as emotionally involved with the Son brothers as her mother was, and the only thing that Linda was bent out of shape for was the way that the Sons still didn't trust her yet. This mistrust had been the subject of many a rant in that month, and the two or three months that followed, after the adoption. Myna had understood; even if she hadn't shown it quite as expressively as her daughter, she had felt exactly the same way.

Because of this emotional involvement, adoption of the two had been on her mind for a quite a while before they'd presented it to the Sons. Three weeks long, actually. It had not been a solid idea of until the second week of deliberation (making it the third week of the month), but it had suck up on Myna one day when she was troubled about their future after Goten's knee healed. _If we adopted them, we wouldn't have to worry_, she had thought. _If we adopted them— _But then the realization of the thought had hit her, forcing her to break it off with a gasp. Since then, however, it had constantly been on her brain, lurking in the shadows of her mind as she worked.

Finally, at the end of the third week, Myna told Jack about it. Her husband had been as stunned as she had, but after half a day thinking about it, he had agreed. She thought it was looking at the quiet pair of Sons that had convinced him, the way that they seemed so lost and alone in the world. The way they so obviously craved warmth, and love, and yet kept themselves distant from it, as if it would only hurt them, as if it would quickly get taken away if they gave into it.

Linda had also agreed, and the family had started collecting the paperwork they would need to adopt the Sons. They filled out the sheets that could be filled out, but left the spaces blank were appropriate, for the Sons to fill out, including the new names. Linda had come up with the alternate first names of Jeffrey and Marcus, in case Gohan and Goten didn't want to sue their own, and decided to use the Sons' real names as an initial for their middle names. Still, the family could only do so much without knowing if Son Gohan and Son Goten were willing to be adopted. So they had breached the topic in the fourth week of that month, when Jack finally judged Goten's knee to be as good as new.

Linda, who had been impatient with their refusal to divulge anything about their family until Goten's knee healed, had finally pounced on them. She had wrenched the information that Gohan and Goten were runaways out of them first, then sang out the idea of adoption in the form of an innocent question, as if she had just thought of it. The Sons had been shocked, then filled with wonder that anybody would do this for them. Myna and Jack had seen the hope in their eyes, however, and that very same day the Sons had become full-fledged members of the Harrison family.

Even so, it had taken a long time for the new Harrisons to trust them fully. Not even Great-Grandmother Luann's visit had been enough to assuage them completely, although it certainly had gone a long way. Luann had been more than approving; she had positively fallen hard for them at first sight. She still did love them, too, as much as she loved Linda, Jack, and Myna. She played the harmonica on their birthdays.

Finally, though, Jeff and Marc had begun to believe in them. They had talked more about themselves, but not about their family or their past. Those would come a year later, while out camping. Their eyes had lost some of their haunted look, they had a lot more meat on their bones (and what an appetite they had had!), and were even acting more like their age. They were still quiet, but not as lost-looking, especially with the haircuts she had gotten them. That had been a lot of hair.

When Jeff had shown her how both her and Marc could wield ki during the tale of their lives, Myna could not have been more surprised. So there was such a thing as chi! Chi had been the word she'd learned for "inner energy", but saying that word had not been an option, seeing as it was also a nickname for their biological mother.

She'd also been shocked when Marc had told them they had defeated Cell and could still power up to Super Saiyans I and II. They wouldn't do it, so as not to attract the attention of the feared Z-senshi, and would have to get used to a life without using ki—a seemingly impossible feat for two people had been aware of it since they were toddlers. Still, Jeff had remarked wistfully, it would be nice to spar with ki again after so long.

Myna, Jack, and Linda had all looked at each other.

And now here they were, after several long tumultuous journeys undergone by all of them, about to embark on yet another one. _We have already started_, she mused, her hands cupped around her now-cold and –empty teacup, _with no end in sight._

Sighing, she put down the cup and stared out of the window. Even after all this, would Jeff and Marc want to go back to the Z-senshi? It didn't seem likely, but doubt still gnawed at her. Very often she didn't understand what was going on with her adopted children, especially if it was ki-related. It was the same with Linda, but not in the areas of ki. It made her frustrated and afraid that she couldn't help her children, even though she had helped aplenty already, and they could take care of themselves.

She still felt that Jeff and Marc should have someone to understand them, other than themselves, when it came to ki, and the Z-senshi were the ones who could do that. Would this understanding be enough to drive her children back to them? She hoped not. She had loved them too much for too long to now know that her heart would shatter if Jeff and Marc left them. And not just her heart, but Linda's, especially, and Jack's. all three of them had become so tangled and meshed with the newer members that it was impossible to see life without them. And now it looked as if it was going to happen.

Oh, Kami, this was getting really hard for her to think about. And Jack was going to be home soon, and the kids, including Linda. It was the weekend, so Linda was coming home in about fifteen minutes, if she judged the distance over time correctly. She had to get cleaned up, before any of her family saw her in such straits.

She proceeded to do just that.

:-:-:-:

It was a drained Jack that tumbled through the door of the Harrison home eleven minutes later. His wife smiled at him sympathetically from the living room, but it had an odd half-heartedness to it, as if Myna wasn't putting her whole heart into the gesture.

Now, Jack knew Myna. There was absolutely no reason for her to be half-hearted about anything, unless she'd been thinking about the Z-senshi. Approaching her, the light-haired, lean, lanky, brown-eyed man thought that that must be the case. Why else would Myna's gray-blue eyes be so troubled?

His wife of nineteen years stretched out her arms to receive Jack's hug. As he embraced her, he whispered in her ear,

"This whole thing is bothering you, isn't it? I could see it when I walked in."

Myna puled back, startled. Jack let her go, smiling amusedly at her look of astonishment. As he reached to brush Myna's hair behind her ear, Jack watched her expression change to a wry amusement of her own, complete with the curl of her mouth.

"You always did manage to see right through me, Jack Harrison," Myna muttered. She looked up, smiling, up at her grinning husband, whom merely drew her closer to him in response.

"I just don't know what's going to happen, Jack," Myna said quietly. "What if Jeff and Marc want to go back to the Sons? I don't think I could ever survive if they did."

"Neither could I," murmured Jack. "Linda, either. But, I don't think that Jeff and Marc _will_ go back. They just hold too much of a grudge against them to do that."

"I know," came the subdued response, as Myna rested her head on her husband's shoulder. In a slightly muffled voice, she continued, "But grudges heal over time. What if Jeff and Marc see Chichi and Goku and forget all about it, and want to go home with them? I—my heart would break." Tears were leaking out of Myna's eyes now, dripping onto Jack's shirtfront. It was with a gasp that Myna lifted her head, though, as a pair of arms wrapped around her from behind.

"It's okay, Mom. We'll never go back to them. Believe us," Jeff said, couching his face on Myna's shoulder.

Marc, beside her, also slid his arm around his mother's waist, but rested his head on Jack's shoulder, knowing that if his mother had doubts about the whole thing, so did Jack. Jack smiled down at his sons and Myna; never before had Myna looked so vulnerable, or so assured, either. He was glad they were there, in his arms, and made a firm resolution never to let them go away.

Marc finally let go, followed by Jeff. Jack hung on for a bit longer, reassuring Myna in his own way, before he, too, released her. Myna was still crying, but she smiled through her tears at her family. Jack stepped away and out of the living room into the kitchen, where Jeff and Marc were walking to the kitchen table. Marc, however, didn't stop at the table but went on to deftly fish out a bag of fish chips. He avoided Myna's smiling admonishment ("Marc! You know you're not supposed to have snacks right before dinner") and went over to the table where his brother and father sat. There he chomped down on the chips, pausing only to grin impishly at Myna as she, too, wandered over to join the rest of her family at the kitchen table.

Linda's burst through the door brought Jack's head around so quickly that he thought he heard bones crack, but knew they didn't. It was only because it was starting to rain out there, like last night, that Linda was in such a tearing hurry. Out of habit Jack looked at Jeff to see how his son was faring with the rain; he was fine. Jack reminded himself that Jeff didn't have any reactions of lethargy with the rain anymore, but it was a habit built up over several years; it was going to be hard to break. Still, it was nice to know that Jeff was fine, and so was Marc, too, although those fish chips were running out, if the expression on his youngest's face was an indication of anything.

Linda's voice cut short his reverie. "So, how did it go for Videl?" Jack mentally kicked himself in the head. He had been so interested in the fate of Videl after he had found out that she had a catharsis. And here had his sons been for all this time and he hadn't thought to ask. Of course, Myna had needed some comforting…

"It went well. She talked her dad about the no attention thing and he promised not to do that anymore," Jeff answered, leaning on the table with his elbows. "Still, it's kind of hard to believe that Hercule Satan is going to stop trying for the limelight and stop with all the women and so on right away. I believe it'll take a while for our friend Herc to return to the respectable life."

"It's a start though," Myna commented, pleased. Jack nodded, but he could see that neither Linda nor Marc seemed enthusiastic about the discussion. He only smiled at them sympathetically, making them grin sheepishly. Neither of them had exactly forgiven Hercule for his taking all the credit for the Cell Games, never mind that none of them had done anything about it.

The discussion then moved on from there. Mostly it was everyone retelling what had happened that day for each of them. Finally, though, it was Myna who came up with what everyone was trying to avoid.

"What are we going to do about the Z-senshi?"

Jeff and Marc glanced at each other, then back to Linda, Myna, and Jack.

"Actually, we were thinking about that just yesterday."

:-:-:-:

Since tomorrow was Saturday, the Harrisons decided to go to the park, relax, have fun. Linda, even was persuaded to eschew her homework for the day, although it was a difficult process, Linda being the studious and anxiety-wracked college student she was. So it was with much racket that Jeff and Marc pulled Linda into the Harrison van with them, where Myna and Jack were already waiting.

With them the Harrisons brought several picnic baskets, a blanket big enough to hold three people, a Frisbee, the Nerf ball that Videl had tried to steal one day, and also several umbrellas, in case there was rain. It didn't seem like it was going to; the sky was a cloudless robin's egg blue, and the sun was shining merrily upon them, as if it were wishing them a good day.

When they got to Hinagashi Park, a park that was much closer to their home than Murasimo Plaza, the Brothers fairly spilled out of the van. Linda followed more sedately, as did Myna and Jack, but even they were fired up with good cheer. It had definitely been a good idea to go on this picnic, an idea that got them away from their problems and worries.

Marc and Jeff set up shop not far away from their parents and Linda, who prepared the picnic baskets and the blanket. As Myna and Linda lowered themselves onto the blanket, Jack went over to join the Brothers in their "friendly" game of Frisbee. As Linda wryly observed, no game between males was ever "friendly".

Life was well for the Harrisons, until Phase I of the plan they had outlined yesterday unexpectedly went into effect. It began with the hearing of voices calling out, "Gohan! Goten!"

The Z-senshi had arrived.


	18. So You Reap What You Sow, Eh?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Last chapter; confrontation time! Dum dum dum!

The Z-senshi had all been visiting Capsule to celebrate the momentous occasion of Cell's defeat when Bra had suggested that they go outdoors to play. It was too risky to throw stuff around with all of the costly exhibition décor inhabiting the inside of Capsule, Bra had said, and everyone else had instantly agreed. Once they were outside, however, the Z-senshi realized that they were in broad sight and would seem to be a little strange to be camping on Capsule's expansive front lawn, even if Trunks, Bra, Marron, Gohan, and Goten had done that numerous times when they were younger.

So they had decided to move to Kame Island. Bulma had packed wave runners into capsules for the kids since the Island was going to be too small for all of the Z-senshi to fit in at once, and Chichi had packed plenty of food, as was her wont. All had piled into the carrier plane (designed to hold all members of the Z-senshi, including two that were long gone), which had taken off five minutes later to the farewells of Dr. and Mrs. Briefs.

However, the plane had only gone a quarter of the distance to Kame Island before chaos took over. This chaos was in the form of Trunks yelling, "Wait! Waitwaitwaitwaitwaitwaitwait! Down there! Jeff and Marc Harrison's kis!"

"WHAT!" Bulma screeched. The plane gave a violent jerk, throwing everyone except Trunks off balance. Trunks levitated off of the floor to get to the front, bypassing Pan's legs, which were tangled with Chichi's, and the equally tangled mess of Krillin, Goku, and Android 18.

"Go down towards that big clump of trees off to the left there and then take a right and land when I tell you. We'll be as close to the Harrisons as we can without crashing or scraping the carrier plane," Trunks told his mother above the squabbling press of people behind him.

Bulma nodded, all business, and nudged the big aircraft forward, thanking Dende that the plane was easy to handle despite its size. She could concentrate on getting around "that big clump of tress off to the left here" more, and she needed all the concentration she could get, what with the noise in the cabin behind her.

"Hang on everybody, we're going to bank right sharply!" Bulma called. The Z-senshi scrambled to get to places of relative security and hung on tight, just as the plane swerved right. If it hadn't been such an urgent matter, Trunks would have laughed at the pale color of his friends as he looked back at them, but as it was, he only turned back and told Bulma to land between the two cherry trees straight in front of them.

Instantly Bulma slowed down, almost knocking everyone off balance again, and started the process of landing her plane. Since the carrier plane (type Z-510) was equipped with hover-landing gears, Bulma, as the pilot, didn't need to worry about runways. She could just pick a spot, any spot, even if it was in a circle of trees, and be able to land in it without trouble, provided that the plane was able to fit in that spot. That was exactly what Bulma did, and she did it with style.

Within moments, everyone was out of the plane and headed towards five human kis, two of which were intimately known to four of the Z-senshi. Speaking of those four of the Z-senshi, Trunks was in the lead, followed closely by Bra, Pan, Marron, and Goku, with Chichi struggling after them, and the rest afterwards. It seemed like forever to those walking or running behind the forefront to get to the kis, and more than forever to Chichi and Bulma, who could not sense ki. Finally, though, the group in front stopped, allowing the people behind them to catch up. And what they saw was enough to stop time.

Chichi heard a roaring sound in her eyes and knew she was about to faint. Instead she took a step forward, and another, and another, until she was running, but the only thing she was aware of was the sight before her. She saw only her sons tossing a Frisbee back and forth, saw only their faces, alight with mischievous grins, saw only their fun, and ran to them. She thought not about their reactions to her, or the other consequences of her actions, but only called out, "Gohan! Goten!"

As if freed from a spell, the other Z-fighters burst forth from where they stood and took up the cry, "Gohan! Goten!"

The two figures in front of them paused in their Frisbee match and turned their heads toward the flood of humans, aliens, and hybrids stampeding to them. Chichi, in the lead, smashed into the Lost Son closest to her, Gohan, and enfolded him in her arms, sobbing. The others crowded around both him and Goten, whom had moved over to his brother, in a pandemonium of noise. Only Trunks, Bra, Marron, and Pan hung back, knowing that Jeff and Marc were not going to be happy, and neither were the other Harrisons.

Although Chichi was hugging Jeff, Jeff was not hugging her back. He was just standing still and stiff, his black eyes staring ahead and over the head of Krillin Chestnut, the Frisbee held tightly in his hand and no expression on his face. Marc was the same way, only he was looking down at Chichi and he was not being hugged. Neither of these two was saying anything, but their rage and other dark emotions were pouring off of them in waves.

Piccolo and Vegeta stepped back, breaking the circle, and joined the others standing outside because they recognized the blank looks on the Lost Sons' faces. The circle only tightened, and only Eighteen looked back and did a double-take. She, too, stepped out of the semi-circle, dragging her husband with her, to stand by her daughter, Marron. That left only Bulma, Chichi, and Goku to Jeff and Marc, so they created only a wall now, and not a circle.

Suddenly a voice rang out. "Get your hands off of my brother!"

Shocked, Chichi looked up from her son's chest and stared with the others at the tall, slender, and angry black-haired young woman standing a short distance away from them.

Linda could not believe the audacity of these people. How dare they just come barging in like they owned the place and treat her brothers like nothing had happened! How dare they hug Jeff and touch Marc without asking if it was all right to do so! How dare they even get _near_ Jeff and Marc! They weren't fit to walk on the same ground, let alone _breathe_ the same air!

Her hands clenched and she stepped forward. "Get. Your. Hands. Off. My. Brother," she repeated, hissing at the woman who had been hugging Jeff. Shock in her bold, black eyes, the woman Linda assumed to be Chichi stepped back, releasing a stoic Jeff as she did so. Jeff immediately turned and walked quickly back to Myna and Jack, Marc following after shooting an unreadable glare at Chichi. Linda, however, was not finished.

"How dare you," she started, her voice deadly calm. Her fists were still clamped, however, and the hatred on her face put the lie to her calm tone. "How dare you come here and try to take away my brothers like nothing ever happened! How could you do that! Do you know how happy Jeff and Marc are with us? Do you know how long it took for them to get over the neglect they faced to obtain that happiness? Well? Do you?" Linda asked furiously of the woman only a few meters in front of her. "Answer me!"

Chichi couldn't. she couldn't open her mouth and say "no". It was with a sinking heart, however, that she had listened to the young lady's words, and this was what Linda saw in her eyes.

"It took a year and a half before Jeff and Marc would tell us about you. _A year and a half_," Linda spat. Chichi's eyes widened and she took another step backwards, colliding with her husband's body in the process. Linda didn't stop, though, even as she took another step to keep up the pressure. "It's because of _you_ that my brothers couldn't sleep each night before we adopted them. It's because of _you_ that Marc had and still has problems with his right knee, sometimes. It's because of _you_, you and your alien husband, that Jeff thought that there was something wrong with him, that he didn't deserve to be loved!"

Chichi looked stricken and heart-broken. So did Goku, holding Chichi steady by the shoulders. Krillin was gaping in shock. Pan appeared like she was struggling with all sorts of different emotions. Trunks had a set look on his face, like he knew that this sort of thing would happen and was blaming himself for it. Marron, like her mother, wore a look of deep sorrow on her face, even if Eighteen didn't show it as much as her daughter did.

Piccolo's expression was inscrutable, Vegeta was folding his arms over his chest to match the seemingly indifferent countenance he sported, and Bra was crying. Bulma acted paralyzed; not even Dende's appearance shook her out of the frozen state she'd fallen into. Dende himself seemed highly uncomfortable, shifting his weight from one foot to the other; it was clear he had come to atone for his mistakes as much as the others.

Linda, for her part, was wild-eyed and panting. Her fists were still clenched, and her body posture was stiff and angry, not just highly disapproving. However, she had gotten her message across, so when she opened her mouth to no doubt barrage the Z-senshi some more, it was Jeff who stopped her.

"It's okay, Lin. You've said what you wanted to say," he said quietly. Linda didn't move for several seconds, her chest heaving with the deep breaths she took. She did finally move, after Jeff stepped up and laid a hand on her shoulder. Jeff kept his eyes down, away from Chichi's face, but she could easily guess what she would see in them: pain. The revelation tore her into pieces and left her trembling, watching Linda and Jeff stomp away back to their family.

Their family. Oh, yes. She could see how close-knit they were, the Harrisons. At one time the Sons had been the same way, but it had not lasted long, only until Radditz had come. _Darn you_, she thought furiously, helplessly. _I wish you had never come!_

There was nothing that she could do, however, but watch the family scene play out before her and wish a thousand painful deaths upon her brother-in-law, who had been the inadvertent cause of all this strife.

Meanwhile, as Chichi was cursing Radditz to the ninth HFIL, the Harrisons were having an emergency family meeting.

"Should we do as we discussed yesterday? Or should we pack up and wait until we're more prepared?" Myna wanted to know.

"I think that we should go ahead with the plan," Marc said, quietly. Jeff nodded solemnly. Linda didn't say anything, for she was still peeved about the whole thing. Jack noticed this and voiced his opinion that they should really pack up and go. The Brothers followed his sharp gaze and raised their eyebrows, but didn't offer to change their vote. Myna looked troubled, but she remained undecided. Finally, Linda spoke up, her voice level,

"I think we should do it. hear what they've got to say for themselves."

So it was decided, three to one, with one undecided, to stay and carry out the plan. The plan was simple: to let the Sons and the Z-senshi defend themselves and their actions, and then tell the Z-senshi of the consequences of those actions. Linda had already accomplished the second part of their plan, but there was an ulterior motive to all this: based on the testimony of the Z-senshi, the Harrisons were going to se if they couldn't convince Earth's Special Forces to bugger off and leave them alone.

It might require a sacrifice upon the part of the Harrisons to achieve this end, but the Brothers' family had not objected to it. So it was this mission that Linda, Jeff, Marc, Myna, and Jack set out to accomplish as they approached the Z-senshi.

Jack had been elected to take charge, as he was the most perceptive out of all of them, and the calmest. So it was he who told the Z-senshi rallied against him,

"All right. We're going to give you a second chance, and let you tell us why you did what you did all those years ago. Not here, though, it's too public."

"And not at either Capsule or Mount Paoz. We," Jeff indicated that "we" meant him and his brother, "have too many memories associated with those places. Linda punctuated her brother's words with a challenging glare. Jack nodded in agreement.

Bulma, finally shaking out of her paralysis, stepped forward with a self-confidence she did not feel. "We were just flying to Kame Island. Is that acceptable?"

A short conference between Jeff, Marc, and Jack resulted in a nod from Jack. Marc felt strange, as the formality Bulma had addressed them with was usually reserved for people she did business with, only without the usual condescending tone that usually accompanied it. Marc smiled grimly. Good, she was taking this seriously. It was about time.

The Harrisons had a little problem with the fact that they would be leaving behind their van and the things they had brought with them for the intent of having a picnic. Trunks solved that easily by drawing out an empty capsule and tossing it to Marc, who caught it easily. Mouthing, _I'll explain later_, to his parents and Linda, Marc turned to the van, where Jeff was already packing the picnic things. When Jeff stepped away, Marc tossed the capsule at the van, which disappeared in a _poof_ and an explosion of purple clouds. Jeff stooped, picked up the capsule, and pocketed it, turning back to the Z-senshi.

The rest of the Harrisons staggered. So that was what the capsule thing was all about! Jack shook his head inwardly, amazed at the technology over again. He'd been amazed when he'd first heard of it, but actually seeing it was different than hearing about it.

Meanwhile, Piccolo and Vegeta told Bulma that they would fly to Kame Island on their own, not in the carrier plane. Goku said that he would IT to Kame Island and let Master Roshi know that the Harrisons were coming with the Z-senshi. Bulma nodded to them, and instantly Goku disappeared, followed by Piccolo and Vegeta shooting into the sky. The Harrisons viewed the displays of ki with external suspicion and internal wonder, at least for Linda, Myna, and Jack, although Linda would not have admitted it in her persistent black mood. Jeff and Marc internally were filled with longing to fly again, now that they could after so long. They expressed none of this outwardly, maintaining their emotionless masks for the moment.

The rest of the Z-senshi followed Bulma with the Harrisons back to the carrier plane. It was a good thing that Vegeta, Piccolo, and Goku had left, for there would not have been room for all of the Harrisons otherwise. When Bulma had designed and built the plane, she had considered only having Gohan and Goten back when she put in the extra space, not any other people. In hindsight, Bulma realized that she probably should have done that, but didn't think about it when Trunks offered to fly the carrier plane instead of her. Bulma agreed, hastily, for she didn't feel like she could fly with her nerves on such high alert. Like her mate and husband, Bulma thanked Dende that Trunks was so steady of spirit. They never would have made it to Kame Island without incident otherwise.

Speaking of Dende, where had the young Guardian of Earth gone? A quick glance outside told Bulma that Dende was flying alongside the plane, a miserable expression on his face. From the expression, Bulma guessed that even if the plane hadn't been packed, the Guardian of Earth would not have come in and suffered under the accusing gazes of his former friends and their new family. Bulma grimaced: she felt the same way. Sometimes not knowing how to use ki was a pain in the neck. Otherwise, she would have joined him out there.

It was a tension-fraught ride all the way to Kame Island. Even so, the Harrisons took great delight in the scenery all around them as they flew past forest upon forest, even a mountain or two, and then finally the sea. Waves upon waves upon waves of glittering blue sea occasionally speckled with white for a boat flashed by in the blink of an eye, until it seemed to the Harrisons that all of the Earth was just an expanse of this huge sea continent and that it ran forever. Finally, though, Trunks' voice came over the intercom, announcing that they were about to land.

"Buckle up your seatbelts and hold on to your ears!" Trunks told them, his cheer obviously forced. He waited until he heard everyone call out, "Got it!" before he set the plane into a gentle helix which ended at Kame Island.

Twenty minutes later, everyone was out of the plane and on the tiny island in the possession of Master Roshi. Goku, Piccolo, and Vegeta were waiting for them; Master Roshi and the Turtle came out upon hearing the roar of the carrier plane. With them came Oolong, who had obviously been poring over his favorite magazines: his cheeks were burning and his eyes had a giddy tint to them, as if he'd nearly fainted from an overload of pleasure. He sobered up quickly, however, upon seeing three unknown people step out of the plane, followed by two just as strange and yet familiar people.

In fact, he, along with Master Roshi and the Turtle, gaped when they saw Jeff and Marc. The Brothers had changed so much in the past five years that they were barely recognizable anymore, especially to the Kame trio, which hadn't been in close contact with the Brothers even before the Cell Games. So it was quite the shock to these three beings. However, once Roshi and Oolong spotted Linda, they promptly pushed the Brothers out of their mind.

Linda, fortunately, knew about the perverts of the Z-senshi and immediately glared at them when she saw them looking, her already-present anger adding fire to her gaze. The pig and the old man recoiled, and stayed respectfully out of her way as she and the others, including the rest of the Z-senshi came over.

For a meeting place, there was a bit of an awkward moment. Did they want it outside on inside, where it was much cooler? Marc solved the problem by marching into the house and settled into an Indian-style position on one of the futons on the floor. Linda trailed after him, and after some hesitation, did the same as he. The Americans preferred their furniture to the Japanese furniture, but had no problems adjusting to different scenarios outside of the home, thanks in a large part to their local friends.

Myna and Jack arranged themselves on either side of their children (Linda was to Marc's left, Jeff had sat down on Marc's right), while the Z-senshi trickled in and found their own seats. In the end, almost all of them were sitting, although Krillin, Eighteen, Vegeta, and Piccolo were all standing. Eighteen was leaning on the wall next to the doorway, where Krillin himself was standing, his hands in his pockets. Both Vegeta and Piccolo were outside the house, if still on the veranda. The both posted themselves next to one of the two windows facing them, just out of sight but still close enough to clearly hear everything that was said.

"All right, let's get started. First, starting with the Sons, all of you will tell us how, in the name of all that is holy, did you let the situation get so out of hand? And I want no excuses or apologies, just the facts of the matter," Jack announced, turning his head to the Sons, off to his right. Jeff, next to him, stiffened ever so slightly, but made no move to halt the proceedings as an uncharacteristically apprehensive Chichi started to speak.

"I suppose this all started when Goku's brother, Radditz, came to Earth. Because of him, Gohan and Goten were taken away and didn't come home for a year, while Goku died to save them. I was alone for a whole year, and it was so lonely, especially when I heard of Goku's death."

Jeff and Marc were stoic, the fact that they had heard all of this before (though not in quite this form) helping them stay cool. Jack himself was still carefully neutral, although Linda still looked angry and Myna was listening intently. Jack tuned back in with a feeling akin to relief.

"When they came back, when all of my family was back, I was so happy. But soon I found that I no longer knew my children as well as I had before. I no longer knew what my children thought, why they acted this way or that, or even what they liked anymore. It was only when they were asleep that they were familiar to me. That was not a heartening idea, and so I was determined to reconnect with my sons in any way possible," chichi narrated. Marc snorted and looked to the side, shaking his head. Jeff continued to look steadily at his biological mother, but it was clear to everyone that he agreed with his brother.

"Yes, I did go overboard with that, didn't I?" Chichi mused, grimacing in hindsight. She didn't get a verbal answer, but Jeff's cool gaze was enough to burn her anyway. She continued, looking down as she did so. Goku squeezed his wife's shoulder very lightly in support.

"Over the years, we just drifted apart. It didn't help that when the boys went off to Namek and then came back, it was the same thing all over again. I had never wanted my children to be fighters, but I was forced to sit by and watch them save the world battle after battle, fight after fight, day after day. They came back from each battle just a little changed, but it was enough to make them like strangers to me, and I had to relearn who they were, how they ticked, and so on.

"Each time they came back, each time that I tried to reconnect with my sons," Chichi stated, tears coming into her eyes now as she looked at her sons, all grown up now, and she hadn't been there for them. She hadn't been there for them in a long time, actually, since the Radditz incident. She acknowledged that freely, as she had only a week ago, as she sat before her sons, awaiting their judgement at last.

"Each time, my heart went out to them, struggling to adjust to a world that was constantly changing on them, making them grow up so fast, and my love for them grew stronger and stronger, so that it hurt so much when, finally, my sons returned from the Cell Games and I couldn't recognize them at all, and, and—" Her voice rose in pitch and broke, and chichi collapsed, sobbing, into her mate's arms.

For the few minutes that it took for Chichi to cry herself out, none of the Harrisons moved. Jeff was still stoic, Marc still had a bitter, hard, look on his face, but Linda was softening, just a little bit, and Myna was close to crying herself. _If that had happened to me..._ She hardened. _This will _not_ do. This is the woman who neglected my children. I should _not _be feeling sorry for her! _

It was still heart-breaking.

Finally Chichi composed herself and finished up her tale. "I hated myself. I couldn't...couldn't believe that I didn't recognize my children anymore, and I hated it. I hated myself so much that I couldn't stand to look at my sons and be reminded of that hate, I couldn't even stand to be in their company for more than a few seconds. You were so gloomy, so sad, so changed," she said softly to Jeff and Marc, the latter of whom refused to look at her, "that even when I sent you from the room, I would remember how haunted you look, and I would be in so much pain...

"I realize now that I shouldn't have been so selfish. I should have worked with you, been the mother that I should have been, and helped you get past the trauma of the Cell Games so that you would be bright and happy again, be the sons that I knew once. I make no excuses for my behavior now, and I accept all responsibility for my actions."

Chichi straightened up in the face of her sons, both of them, and lifted her chin, holding her head high like the princess she'd once been. Jeff regarded her coolly; Marc watched her still bitterly; and the rest of the Harrisons were silent, knowing that they had no part in this trial of family.

Finally, Jeff blinked, slowly, and transferred his black gaze to the Saiyan beside Chichi.

"And what's your story, Son Goku?"

Goku's head shot up and he looked, startled, at Jeff. The expression in those eyes was unreadable, but the Saiyan had heard correctly: he was being given the same chance as his wife, to tell his story and own up to his actions. He took a deep breath.

"Well... During the Cell Games, I... I was told repeatedly that I shouldn't have made the both of you fight Cell. You weren't ready, Krillin and Piccolo said. But I didn't believe them, I thought I knew more than they did about you two. I had trained with you for a year in the Hyperbolic Time Chamber; I thought I knew you two. But then Piccolo told me that neither of you liked to fight, had never wanted to fight in the first place.

"This was a revelation to me; never had I imagined that my sons weren't fighting because they liked it, but they were fighting because it was their duty to do so. If they didn't do it, no one else would," Goku remarked, calmly. It was still a blow to his pride to admit that he'd made a huge mistake concerning his children, but this time and place was not the proper situation to use his pride to shield himself.

While Goku had been talking about Krillin and Piccolo, the Brothers' eyes had flicked to the black-haired midget and to the wall where Piccolo's ki resided, then back to their biological father. Krillin had noticed, and somewhere in his heart there rose the stirrings of a half-hope, but he squashed that quickly, knowing that the judgement for him would be just as harsh as it would be for everyone else.

The Saiyan proceeded to say, "As such, I was shocked. Why hadn't I seen that before? Was my own satisfaction and joy in fighting so blinding that I couldn't see when other people didn't like it? I asked myself these questions over and over again, but I found no answers. It wasn't easy to live with myself without the answers to those questions, and I didn't protest when Chichi sent you two away from the room. I also discouraged you from associating from other people, particularly your peers, because I was afraid that if you did, they would see my flaws, my mistakes, and I couldn't stand that, not when I saw my fallibility in you all the time.

"However, I didn't realize that in not protesting and preventing you from seeing your friends, I was sentencing you to more misery, more unhappiness than you deserved. I also own up to my selfishness and accept the consequences of both what I did do and did not do."

Again, the Brothers simply looked him over, their expressions inscrutable (with Marc's face still holding a hard tinge to it), then moved on.

"Krillin?" This time Marc called to the midget, who stirred, then fell back against the doorjamb as he realized that it was his time.

"Yeah," he said. "I didn't exactly know what was happening in your home, and I still can't forgive myself for that. I only visited three times that year after the Cell Games, you remember, and each time I didn't even see you. When I asked after you, Chichi and Goku always said that you were fine, and that you were either studying or going out to visit Piccolo at his waterfall. As I had not seen Piccolo at all after the Cell Games, I easily believed them, and did not press further.

"They say that hindsight is twenty-twenty. They don't say that you won't like what you see in hindsight," Krillin quirked, much to the silent agreement of everyone present. "I'm sorry that I didn't do anything, but I didn't know, and— Sorry. That's an excuse, and your dad said he didn't want to hear any of those. I'll shut up now."

Krillin looked so downcast that Marc couldn't help but feel some sympathy for him; he tried to squelch those feelings, and succeeded temporarily, as his brother asked, in a steady voice, "Piccolo, is Krillin's statement the way it was for you? You never visited at all during that last year."

A sigh was all that they heard before the Namekian's voice floated through the window. "Not quite. It's true; I didn't visit, but not because I was abandoning you. Like the midget, I was not aware of your troubles. Instead, I was busy helping Dende settle in; he still wasn't comfortable being the Guardian of Earth, and Kami wanted to be there for him. Other than that, yes, Chestnut's admission is mine."

Jeff nodded, although Piccolo was not able to see it. "Very well. Vegeta! Do you have anything to say for yourself?"

"No," came the gruff answer, although it was a shocking one to either of the Harrison Brothers. Linda stiffened in outrage, Jack frowned, and Myna was confused. However, the Saiyan Prince was not finished. "There's nothing for me to say."

Jeff nodded again. "All right then. Bulma?"

Bulma was crying, but she managed to stammer out that Krillin had said what was to be said. "Although, we _were _dealing with emotional problems on our own," she added, her breath hitching. "Trunks wasn't all that great after the Games, either, although that, I suppose, is classified as an excuse, too."

"Trunks?"

The purple-haired demi-Saiyan in question looked up at Jeff and smiled sadly. "Even if I had known what was going on, Jeff, do you think I would have been able to do anything?"

Jeff smiled grimly in turn, then looked at Marron and Bra. Both of them met his eyes and then looked away, conveying their general agreement with Trunks' statement. Jeff nodded a third time, decisively, and then gave them all the lashing they should have had a long time ago. In fact, it should be counted as a continuation of the one that Gohan gave the day they ran away all those years ago.

"Listen well to what I have to say here and now, all of you, because I'm not going to say it again. You have no idea what we went through, and you know it. These pathetic platitudes of sorrow that you are offering us will not do anything to change the past. The past can't be changed easily, we well know that, but still, apologizing and accepting the consequences of your actions will do nothing for you.

"I suppose that we will eventually forgive you," Marc snorted incredulously, "but I see that coming in the far, far, far future, when the sting has gone away for good. Maybe the sting won't ever go away for good, and we won't ever forgive you, but at least have the heart to leave us and our family alone and let us decide if you deserve our forgiveness on our own, okay? Do you think you can do that?" Jeff demanded.

Many heads nodded in shamefaced and expectant affirmative. Jeff pursed his mouth as he met the gazes of everyone present, excluding the Harrisons, then nodded, again, and stood up. Marc followed suit, as did Linda, Myna, and Jack. The Z-senshi stayed where they were, knowing that they had failed in their quest for forgiveness, and there was nothing they could do anymore to change the Brothers' minds.

Krillin made way for the Harrisons to pass by him, but Jeff paused in the doorway and addressed Bulma.

"Do you have a plane that can seat five comfortably? We don't have any way to get off this island, other than the carrier plane, which is too bulky. We'll fly it to Capsule and go home in our own van from there."

Trunks reached into his backpack and drew out a box of capsules, which he opened. He searched and grasped one of the capsules, which he then tossed casually to Marc. The youngest Harrison nodded to him and walked after Jeff, who had gone out of the door while Trunks was rooting around for the capsule box.

The other three members of the Harrison family came out of the house into the blinding sun and heat of the Kame Island, which was an actual relief to the heavy coolness of the house and the room they had sat on futons in. Marc pressed the top of the capsule and threw it, resulting a _poof_ of cloud, another soundless explosion, and the appearance of a small fighter-style aircraft that was able to seat six, as the Harrisons found out when they climbed into the plane.

It was Linda who slid into the cockpit in the pilot's seat. She had been to a flying camp when she was seventeen (Jeff had gone there only last summer, but didn't really like flying airplanes as much as Linda did, for obvious reasons, and Marc wasn't old enough yet), and so knew how to fly a plane, especially a fighter-style aircraft, although that had not been her favorite type of aircraft to fly. Jeff, Marc, Myna, and Jack all slid into the seats behind the cockpit and strapped themselves in securely, as per the orders of the captain and pilot.

Marc reached over and opened the door of the cockpit slightly, so that Linda could hear, if she wished, the conversation that was most certainly going to take place on the way to Capsule.

:-:-:-:

Five months later, when Orange Star High School had been out for two weeks, Chichi was the recipient of a very strange and a very bulky package. It wasn't big, but was very interesting.

Humming softly as she trudged back to the house, the house of sorrows that was slowly healing from the events on Kame Island, Chichi turned the stuffed envelope over. She didn't find anything to indicate who sent her the package, but it was clearly written on the front "The Sons, Fountain Peak, 439 Mountain Area, Mt. Paoz." Chichi was a little puzzled about the " Fountain Peak" part, as the peak they rested on had no name that she knew of, but the other information was correct, so she wasn't overly suspicious.

She picked up her step in anticipation of opening the package with no return address. She reached the door and swept through it, although she managed to close it gently after her. To the kitchen table she marched, the package clasped tightly in her arms, even as she called, "Goku! Pan! We have a package!"

Footsteps sounded as Chichi slid into her seat at the round table. Their owners came down the steps into the kitchen and gazed curiously at the yellow and much-wrapped envelope that Chichi held in her hands.

"What is that, Mom?" Pan asked, her eyes lively with curiosity. Something that had killed the cat, Chichi mused randomly, even if satisfaction had brought it back.

"I don't know, sweetie. I haven't opened it yet," she replied absent-mindedly as her family—what was left of it, anyway—slid into the seats around her. "Ready?"

They nodded, and Chichi started tearing into the package, if neatly. Soon the contents were uncovered, only to have bubble wrap spring up. Pan reached for the bubble wrap and started popping the bubbles on it, much to the amusement and confusion of Chichi and Goku respectively.

Chichi took the other end of the bubble wrap, lifted it to see the treasure it contained, and gasped. Pan and Goku looked up in alarm to see Chichi's eyes fill with tears. Goku asked, hurriedly, "What's wrong, Chi?" while Pan leaned forward to see what had gotten her mother so riled up. She had to clap a hand to her mouth quickly, to stifle her laughter, although chuckles still could be heard.

She was looking at a framed picture of Jeff and Marc, where Jeff was rubbing his knuckles over Marc's head and grinning devilishly at the camera. Marc was trying to fight Jeff off, but with no success, although the distorted look of pain on his face was something to laugh at. Even Goku grinned at the picture, although there was a darker shade of pain in his black eyes.

Chichi turned the frame over to see if there was another picture, but was greeted with words in an unfamiliar cursive script, written directly on the cardboard.

_See the sons you once knew, bright and happy._

Chichi's tears spilled over, in sharp contrast to her brilliant smile. A look of wonder spread over Pan's face as she read the caption, and she looked back at Chichi. Goku blinked, clearly shocked, but then his trademark Grin™ spread over his face and he suddenly looked younger, happier, and more like who he used to be.

Pan was startled by the transformation; she had never seen her father like this before. Really, those Brothers had had a big impact on her father's life, not that she hadn't known that before, but she hadn't known it was to this extent. Wow. If Goku had looked like he did now with that Grin™ on his face when the Brothers were around, no wonder so many people had flocked to him. It was an arresting feature, guaranteed to brighten up someone's day, even if the day already seemed cloudless. Pan found a grin was teasing its way onto her own face, and she looked back down at the picture of Jeff and Marc.

There were other pictures, of both Jeff and Marc, of Jeff only, and of Marc only. There was even a family picture, including Linda, Myna, and Jack, but it wasn't the Sons' favorite one. Their favorite was, instead, one in which both of the Brothers had thrown their arms around each other and was flashing the peace sign at the camera. It didn't necessarily mean that they were forgiven, not yet, but the pictures went a long way to lift their spirits and to give them hope for the future.

:-:-:-:

FINIS

**Author's Note:**

> This story was begun in late summer '03 and finished early summer '05. As demonstrated by this work, the author was a very young and immature girl then, with only a vague idea about emotional trauma and IC behavior. Nonetheless, it's interesting to look at as an earlier work as it reveals the author's fascination with emotional trauma and damage even then, when the real world was still this far-off and distant mythical land (or near enough). Perhaps I was born to be a psychologist!


End file.
